The Potternews Authors vs Hogwarts
by Regina Helio
Summary: PG for extreme humor- All the best of luck to Hogwarts because not only am I in this but some of my friends are too! 11/18~ Tess is panicked about the Elven response to her cousin's inquiry and does a scry session and uncovers some nasty truths.
1. The Authors

Chapter One

The Authors****

By Queen Tessandry de Sanyochisei

Professor McGonagall was rather pleased. The Start-of-Term Feast was going off without a single hitch so far and it looked like there wouldn't be any until the usual trouble started brewing up later in the year.

She went to get the First Years and lined them all in a row facing the students. There were some dozen students in the back that looked like they might be older but height could disguise age as well as any charm or potion. Though… they did look rather odd what with the muggle clothing and all.

She started calling off the First Years' names so that they would come up and get sorted.

When all had been sorted she looked up. The gaggle of taller children was still in line and staring at the enchanted ceiling.

A girl, perhaps fifteen, with ice blue hair blinks her mint green eyes and snaps out of the trance-like state that the whole group was in and exclaims in a hoarse whisper the rest of the group, "We're at Hogwarts! C'mon! Snap out of it! We're at Hogwarts!"

A small boy, looking like he could have been a first year, with strange purple hair in a ponytail and a quarterstaff in his hand said, "Okay! I'm out of here!"

He throws down his staff, which turns itself into a silver muggle surfboard. He jumps on to it and disappears.

In the few moments of silence following the boy's disappearance, the girl with ice blue hair mutters loudly, "Tsunamiya, you deserter."

Just a quickly as the boy had left, he reappeared, standing on his staff and in a soaking wet jumpsuit that muggles used while 'surfing' as they called it.

"Dimensional wipe out." the boy that the girl had called Tsunamiya coughs picking up his staff and looking around.

"Serves you right, Tsunamiya!" the girl with ice blue hair yells at Tsunamiya.

"Just because I don't wanna stick around and find out what happened doesn't mean anything, Wendracon!" Tsunamiya yells back, beginning to ring out the dark purple hair in his ponytail that contrasted weirdly with the light purple hair on the top of his head.

"You'd've seen us hung out to dry while you saved your own scrawny little neck!" yells Wendracon.

"Would you two stop!?!?" yells a woman with yellow gossamer wings and a flimsy pale yellow dress, floating a foot above the floor between the two fighters.

"Circe?" Wendracon asks the fairy-like woman.

"Tess?" Circe asks the girl.

"You do have wings!" Tess/Wendracon exclaims.

"You'd think I'd lie?" Circe asks.

"Excuse me for breaking up this cuddly, lovey-dovey reunion but I think we have a larger problem to deal with." interrupts a dark girl at the back of the group, gesturing to the rest of the hall.

Sure enough, all the teachers at the Head Table were standing and watching the group with curiosity. The students at their tables were craning their necks so as to get a better view of the newcomers. Snape, on the other hand, was advancing on the group with his wand drawn.

"_Everyone here seems to have wands,_" thought Tsunamiya. He looks at his staff and waves at it. It shrinks down to a wand about eleven inches long. 

Circe, along with the rest of the group, pulls out a piece of parchment and a pencil, and scribbles something down on it. Suddenly, eleven more wands appear in front of their respective writers. The group laid their wands on the floor to show that they mean no harm.

"Who are you?" Snape asks cautiously, standing at what he thought was a safe distance away from the intruders.

A girl about the same height as Wendracon/Tess but with wild black hair and bright, laughing green eyes steps forward. 

"I'm Venus McGonagall, Snape. Your worst nightmare and Fifth year. Ya wanna try something?" Venus asks. Professor McGonagall nearly passes out after hearing the girl's last name.

The girl dashes forward to Professor McGonagall before anyone can stop her. "Oh no you don't, sis. You haven't heard their story yet and I'm sure that you'll want to." Venus exclaims, supporting the professor.

A wave of whispers passes through the student body. "Sister?", "McGonagall has a sister?" and other such murmurings were whispered to neighbors.

Another woman, looking about twenty, steps forward. She was very slim. Her blonde hair was held away from her blue eyes by a red headband. She looked a lot like Professor Lupin, who'd been the Defense teacher only two years ago. 

"My name is Liz Electra. I'm nineteen years old and my specialty is Defense Against the Dark Arts," she says quietly but, like Snape or McGonagall, she could be heard throughout the entire Great Hall without exerting her voice.

A sweet-looking girl dressed in earthy colors with a rather peculiar bracelet steps forward as well. "My name is Tawny Miryton. I'm fourteen. Pleased to meet you."

Next, the fairy-woman Circe flits forward and curtsies mid-air. "I'm Circe Moss. I'm nineteen and I was best at Charms."

After Circe had retreated to the group, a woman steps forward gracefully and curtsies as well. "I'm Delia Phinium. I'm twenty-four and I like to work with plants." Delia says with a slight Irish accent, curtsies again and retreats.

A boy that looked about the same age as Tawny steps forward. "My name is Chase Phoenixcal. Fourteen. Writer." He steps back and resumes looking at the ceiling.

A dark, mysterious looking girl, younger than Chase, steps forward and, following the other women's example, curtsies. "Maia Rahmlal. Twelve. Enchanted."

Maia retreats as Tsunamiya steps forward. "Surfer Tsunamiya. Eleven. Dimensional traveler."

Jaws drop all over the hall as Surfer retreats to rejoin the group. 

Wendracon/Tess steps forward. She tosses her blue hair back over her shoulder, revealing silver, star and fairy earrings and jangling her silver bangle bracelets. "I'm Tess, current head of Sarcastia's royal house of Wendracon. Tess is short for Tessandry." 

Only then did everyone notice the silver circlet that stretched along her forehead. A few students that were standing bowed or curtsied only to be glared at by their peers.

The dark girl steps forward, almost visibly hyper, and stares Snape in the face. "Ray Fira. Author; age thirteen. Charmed, I'm sure." says as quickly as her motions. She steps back and nudges a strawberry-blonde haired girl next to her.

"Oh! 'Scuse me. Sorry. Chloe Frazier. Seventeen." Chloe says cheerfully. She turns to the redhead next to her. "C'mon, girl. Your turn."

"Alright." the redhead says grudgingly. "Ariety Blythe's the name's and potions' my game. Ya happy now that you know our names?"

"We still don't know why you're all here." Dumbledore says, coming up behind Snape.

Venus snorts and Tess lets out a derisive laugh.

"Your guess is as good as any of ours, Dumbledore." Ariety laughs. Dumbledore recoils slightly since he hadn't been expecting such familiarity from this tall red-haired stranger.

Venus McGonagall steps away from her supposed sister. "Would you like to hear what we do for fun? Fellow writers?" she asks, smiling impishly. She had figured out a connection between all the strangers.

"I don't know about the rest of you but I write stories for my website." Maia says quietly.

"'Teenage Empress of the Sarcastians'. Now where do I remember that?" Chloe asks herself.

"I write Fanfiction for the Harry Potter books." Tawny says, forgetting where she was for a moment. The whole group, save Venus, suddenly clasps their hands to their mouths.

Venus smirks slightly. "_'Bout time they figured that out._" she thought.

"I don't write for the Potter books…" Tess says, a smirk playing across her mouth.

The others look at her as though she'd said Voldemort's name.

"I write for Animorphs, Cardcaptors, Circle of Magic, Digimon, Dragonriders of Pern, and original stories among other things."

The other authors nearly pounce on the Empress but facefall instead.

"That's where I remember Teenage Empress of the Sarcastians! You're the authoress behind that great story!" Chloe exclaims, recovering nicely, "I wrote Harry Potter stories to post there too!"

"We all do. I wrote a self-insertion." Venus says slyly.

Meanwhile, the real Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley were gaping at the strangers. To them, fanfiction was a nonsense word (They're ones to talk! They speak Latin for half their spells!). That and writing it about Harry? That just didn't connect.

"What's this fanfiction?" Professor Flitwick asks.

"Fanfictions are stories based off of original stories written by the fans. In our world, Harry Potter is just a well thought up character in a book series. We write stories putting our own characters, or ourselves in Venus's case, in the storyline or putting the already made characters in different scenarios." Maia answers at length. Everyone, that would be including the authors and authoresses, were staring at Maia.

"What?" Maia exclaims, puzzled, "It's the truth! You know it is!"

Tess sighs. "Really Maia? Couldn't've guessed."

Venus clears her throat loudly. "Excuse me but since we can't seem to get out of here, as Surfer so kindly demonstrated for us earlier," Venus says, batting her eyes at the blushing Surfer, "we're going to be stuck here for a while. Where are we going to stay?"

The writers all nod in agreement. 

"We could make our own tower?" Surfer suggests.

Dumbledore puts on a semi-appalled look as cheers rise from the group.

"Girls' dorm separate from the Boys'" Chloe adds in quickly. Tess, Maia and Tawny second the idea with cheers.

"Darn," Chase grumbles only to get a disapproving look from Surfer.

"And it won't be on the Marauder's Map." Ariety says loudly, glaring at the Gryffindor table where Harry, Ron, Fred and George sat.

Maia, giggling over the innocent act that the Weasley Twins were trying to pull, says, "Yeah. Sure. Right."

Tess snorts with laughter when she notices what the Twins were doing.

Circe, still fluttering a foot above the floor, clears her throat and asks, "This tower idea is all fine and good but where will we put it? We already have the House towers and the Cardinal towers."

The group of authors bows their heads and fell silent for a minute. 

Surfer raises his head, first. "Float it?" he suggests with a grin.

Tess, who had been studying Dumbledore's expression, shoots a glaring look at Surfer as if to shoot that idea out of the air. [_Authoress's note: The pun IS intended!]_

The group fell silent again.

"It looks like we'll have to get sorted. I already know where I'm going. I hope you have a better idea." Ray pipes. The authors murmured assent to that but Ariety had a few things to say about that plan.

"I have three problems with that. One; how are you guys going to be able to follow anything that the teachers have to teach? Two; where do you think we'll be sleeping? Three; What about us that are too old to even be seventh years?" Ariety lists off the flaws, holding out another finger with each additional problem.

The authors thought hard for a moment then Surfer spoke up.

"Any of those problems we can fix with a few strokes of a pencil. We're authors! Remember all the author fics on Fanfiction.net? We can do anything. Watch." Surfer says and pulls out a piece of paper and a sharpened pencil.

He starts writing but reads it aloud as he writes; "My wetsuit turns into robes like those that the students are wearing but in my favorite color, _lilac_."

Over at the Gryffindor table, Harry shudders slightly. Lilac was an awful reminder of the Defense teacher that was here during his second year. Professor Lockhart had worn only three colors and the color that he had worn the most was lilac.

"I didn't think it possible for Tsunamiya to actually come up with a coherent plan. Could I borrow that? I killed my eraser and paper with the wand trick." Tess asks, pointing to the paper and pencil in his hands.

"Tut tut, Wendracon. Flattery will get you nowhere. Here." Surfer says, handing the paper and pencil to the now glaring Tess.  She starts writing.

"'I vanish then reappear in robes of glacial blue'," she reads then jabs the pencil down onto the paper.

Tess does vanish from the platform, but only for a few seconds. When she reappears, her icy blue tee shirt and dark blue jeans were replaced by robes the color of glaciers.

In the next few moments, Circe had changed her yellow dress into turquoise robes, Tawny had changed her own clothes into robes of an earth brown, Venus was in emerald green robes, Ray reappeared in flaming orange robes, Chloe reemerged in pale yellow colored robes, Liz had changed her clothes into denim blue robes, Delia returned in robes of a green that had no right to be anywhere outside of spring while Chase returned in deepest green robes. Maia vanishes quickly and reappears in robes of a dark blue-purple the color of the evening sky that was mirrored on the ceiling.

Ariety stubbornly refuses to change into robes. "You guys can go with the crowd but I will not give up my jeans for some dress."

"Really?" Tess asks, smiling maliciously.

"Yes!" Ariety replies. Tess's grin broadens. Tess scribbles something down quickly on the scrap of paper, still grinning.

As Tess jabs the pencil point down on the scrap, Ariety disappears then quickly reappears in robes of toxic orange.

Ariety looks down at the robes in shock then stares at Tess, whose grin had now faded into a nervous smile.

"You are so dead." Ariety whispers menacingly. She was about to charge at Tess when Chloe put a placating hand on her shoulder.

"Ariety, you look good. Don't be mad. You would have stuck out like a sore thumb." Chloe says, trying to calm Ariety down.

"And I don't now!?!" Ariety yells and points at the students, whom all of which were dressed in black robes.

"That's the point. We're only going to be here for a while. This way, we don't mistake one of us for one of the students. That and you'll look great at the Halloween Feast." Chase says, trying vainly to keep his face straight. The rest of the authors also had a hard time keeping their laughter bottled up at the indirect tease, especially Tess.

"Fine! I'll wear this atrocity. Now, that was all a great display of… What do you want, _now_, Tess?" Ariety asks grudgingly. Tess looks excited, waving another scrap of paper wildly above her head.

"I got the sentence that'll change it so we blend in! I haven't put the period on the sentence yet so we won't change." Tess states and starts to read off the sentences that she'd written.

"First problem's sentence; 'Everyone, except Surfer, knows everything that the school has to teach until the year they're supposed to be in'…" Tess reads but is interrupted by Surfer's loud protest.

"Why don't I know anything!?!?" Surfer complains.

"Because you annoy me. You'll be a first year, Tsunamiya! Think, for a change, before you speak. I know it'll be hard but give it a try." Tess answers. "Going on, problem two is solved by us getting sorted like Ray said and problem three is solved if Circe, Delia, Liz and Ariety will agree to help teach their specialty subjects."

"I won't teach with _him_!" Ariety exclaims at the same time as Snape exclaims, "I won't teach with _her_!"

"Just go along with it Ariety," Chloe says calmly. "This way we have some place to stay while we figure out how to get back."

Ariety grudgingly agrees and subsides. 

"Professor Dumbledore, do you agree with this?" Maia asks quietly.

"Well… it seems as though there's no choice short of turning you out. I do."

The authors start cheering. Tess places the period at the end of the sentence that she'd written to solve the knowledge problem.

"Well? Are we going to just stand around here and keep the tables waiting for food?" Tess asks loudly. Cheers rose from the tables since many hadn't eaten since either the food cart or breakfast.

"Miss Fira, your last name is first…" Professor McGonagall says, gesturing to the Sorting Hat that she hadn't had time to put away.

Ray practically leaps to the stool, picks up the Hat and sits down.

The Hat couldn't have covered more than an inch of her head when the Sorting Hat screams "SLYTHERIN!"

Ray walks, trying not to trip in her excitement, to the table on the far right, the cheers very sparse.

"Miss Frazier, your next…" 

Chloe walks steadily to the Hat. She picks up the hat, sits on the stool and places the Hat on her head.

There was two seconds of silence then, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

The Hufflepuff table cheers as Chloe made her way towards the table second from the right.

Professor McGonagall clears her throat and swallows. 

"Don' worry. Got'cha covered, sis!" Venus says with a mock salute and picks up the Hat and sits as she places it on her head.

"Hmm… Seems like a Gryffindor…" the Hat says in its little voice in Venus's ear.

"_No! Ravenclaw!_" Venus thought at the Hat.

"Oh no, my dear. Gryffindor suits you well," the Hat says in her ear.

"_Oh come on! Ravenclaw! Hufflepuff! I'll even go with Slytherin if it'll keep me out of Gryffindor!_" Venus thought desperately.

"Oh no. If ever there was a Gryffindor, you would be it." the Hat says and yells to the Hall, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Venus takes off the hat sullenly and made her way towards the cheering table on the far left, muttering darkly under her breath.

"Miss Miryton." Professor McGonagall calls.

Tawny places the Hat on her head, which, after ten seconds, cries out, "HUFFLEPUFF!" 

"Mister Phoenixcal."

Chase puts on the Hat, which quickly calls out, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Chase takes off the hat quickly and goes off to sit next to Venus at the cheering Gryffindor table.

"Miss Rahmlal."

Maia walks up to the Hat cautiously. She looks at it curiously as if she wanted to see what made it tick before she places it on her head.

"RAVENCLAW!"

Maia takes off the hat, disliking the fact that she had to leave, and walks off to the table second from the left. 

"Mister Tsunamiya."

Surfer quickly places the Hat on his head. Surfer sat on the stool for almost two minutes before the Hat cries out, "SLYTHERIN!"

Surfer walks off to the table on the far right to sit near Ray.

"Miss Wendragon."

"Of course my name is Tess Wendragon. I've just been saying my name wrong the whole time I've been here." Tess mutters as she places the hat on her head.

"Hmm… sarcastic but smart… I got it now…" the Hat says in Tess's ear, then to the Hall, it shouts, "RAVENCLAW!"

Tess places the Hat back on the stool and goes to sit at the Ravenclaw table, muttering, "Wonderful. I'm in the brain house." Tess made it a point to sit as far away from Cho Chang as was conceivably possible for an odd reason that no one cared to find out.

"Well, that was needless to say interesting. Mr. Filch, please get chairs for Miss Electra, Miss Moss, Miss Phinium, and Miss Blythe and place them at the Head Table please." Dumbledore asks politely and Filch goes off to get the chairs.

As the older women sit down at the Head Table, Ray and Surfer weren't having the best of times at the Slytherin Table.

"So… Surfer. You seem like you don't exactly get along with anyone in your 'group'." drawls Malfoy from beside Surfer. Surfer stiffens slightly.

"I get along fine with Chase. It's Wendracon that's a pain." Surfer answers stiffly, not looking at Malfoy.

"You'll be needing someone to show you around." Malfoy says smoothly. Surfer turns and looks at him.

"Draco Malfoy, your smooth talking will get you no where with me. I know your ways. Get away from me before I turn you into a white ferret so that _no one_ can change you back." Surfer replies just as smoothly and turns back to his interrupted dinner.

While Malfoy tried his luck with Ray [_Not happening, Draco!_], Venus was laughing hysterically at Fred and George's `petty' efforts to antagonize the staff.

"You guys are much too blunt! Anyone could have seen that that was a trap!" Venus laughs. "Filch could have seen it for crying out loud!"

Up at the head table.

"So, er… Miss Moss? How good are you at Charms?" Professor Flitwick asks.

"Would you like a demonstration?" Circe asks mischievously in reply.

"If you wouldn't mind." Flitwick demurs.

"_Fortum Severus Wingardium Leviosa._" Circe whispers to the pumpkin juice jug in front of her.

The jug floats silently upward and goes behind the professors' backs until it reaches Snape's back. It tips slowly and starts pouring its contents down the back of Snape's robes.

Snape lets out a strangled cry when he realizes why his back was getting suspiciously damp.

Liz and Delia smirk appreciatively. Circe tries to keep her straight face as Ariety made gestures that would roughly translate as 'Snape was giving me a lecture. Thanks.'

The feast went on without much further interruption, save a few minor tricks of the pencil from the authors. At the end of the feast, Dumbledore rises from his seat to make the usual announcements.

"Just a few notices before you go to bed. The Forbidden Forest is, as the name denotes, forbidden to students, as well as the village of Hogsmeade to students below third year. No magic in the hallways as usual, and if the, self-termed, authors would oblige me, please meet me after breakfast tomorrow morning. Thank you and good night."

Dumbledore walks out of the Great Hall, closely followed by Circe, Ariety, Delia and Liz.

Taking Dumbledore's leaving as a signal, the students leave the Great Hall as well; first years and authors, except, of course, Venus, following the house prefects to their own common rooms. 

Surfer was able to get a bed in the Slytherin, First Year, Boys' dormitory without using his pencil while most authors had to write themselves a bed.

_Disclaimer and Authoress's Note: This is a fic that I wrote mainly for my friends on Potternews. Thank you all for letting me borrow these characters. Harry Potter and all original characters belong to J.K. Rowling. Ray Fira is property of Marie (rieb7@hotmail.com), Ariety Blythe and Chloe Frazier belong to Kel (Valentine715@aol.com), Venus McGonagall stars as herself (Her Author Page), Tawny Miryton belongs to Meg (FunnyGurl895@aol.com), Liz Electra belongs to Liz (Her Author Page), Circe Moss belongs to Circe (), Delia Phinium belongs to Pat (Trishd29@aol.com), Chase Phoenixcal belongs to Chase (Chase1312@aol.com), Maia Rahmlal belongs to Natalia (TOONatalia@aol.com), Surfer Tsunamiya belongs to my brother, Pory (His Author Page), and Tess Wendracon belongs to me! The Meeting of the Minds and more in chapter two. Tah-tah!_

~Tes-sama__


	2. The Meeting of the Minds

Chapter Two

The Meeting Of The Minds

By Queen Tessandry de Sanyochisei

The next morning, the authors woke early and met in the Great Hall. None of the student authors knew where the teaching authors had gone after the Start-Of-Term Feast except that they'd followed Dumbledore.

"You know? I only just thought of this but what are we going to do for schedules? It's not like every year a group of Harry Potter fanfiction authors show up." Chase says, leaning against the wall. "And what about those extra courses that we read about? It's not like we know them all. We only know about the few JKR mentioned."

"We know them." Circe says with a grin.

"You do?" groans Tess.

"Yes." Ariety answers, grinning at the disdainful look on Tess's face.

"Make… Let's see… Two Fifth years, and a Seventh year, two Fourth years and one Third year… Make five of those lists that JKR wrote about in Secrets. I don't need one." Venus says, glancing around the group.

"I already know what I'm taking so make that four." Tess adds from the floor, tying her high-tops.

"How?" Liz asks Tess, looking curious.

"I found out the list through Serenity." Tess answers, standing up.

"Venus, just curious, but why do you act like you live here?" Surfer asks as Circe and the other teaching authors made one list each.

"Because I do. Look at my name." Venus replies with a grin.

Just then, students began to file in the doors. The authors parted and went to their respective tables; Chloe and Tawny to the Hufflepuff table, Chase and Venus to Gryffindor, Surfer and Ray to Slytherin, and Tess and Maia to Ravenclaw.

Tess, walking with Maia, mutters, "Just don't have Chang sit near us." Maia was confused by this but chose not to mention it around the temperamental empress.

Breakfast was quiet for the authors, save Malfoy sucking up to the Slytherin authors and Snape glaring at the authors that would be assisting in the teaching. He knew that one of the author witches dumped that jug of pumpkin juice down his back but he didn't know which witch did it.

At the end of breakfast, after the schedules had been handed out while being watched enviously by the student authors, Dumbledore stands up at the head table and clears his throat. The hall fell silent.

"I would like to see the Authors now, if I could." Dumbledore announces and walks swiftly out of the hall. Automatically, the two authors at each of the house tables and the four teaching authoresses stand and quickly follow.

When all the authors were in the Entrance Hall, gathered around Dumbledore, Dumbledore turns to face them all.

"I'll be taking you to a private office I used only when Voldemort was in power. You are to tell no one of this room. Am I understood?"

The various authors and authoresses nod and they set off after Dumbledore down a corridor towards the dungeons.

When the authors had just started looking around for the Slytherin Tower entrance, excluding the two Slytherin authors, Dumbledore halts and turns to a wall on the left. Leaning close to the wall, he mutters a word to a torch bracket and steps back quickly.

It was a good thing indeed that he had stepped away because a moment after he'd said that word, incomprehensible to any of the authors, the bracket had turned and the wall swings open.

"Come in." Dumbledore says, stepping into the dimly lit room. The authors enter behind him, glancing around the room apprehensively.

"I have a feeling that you all know why I brought you here." Dumbledore says, leaning on a dusty and old desk. Old papers were stacked here and there, an unopened envelope sat off-centered on top of everything.

"One, don't abuse or show off our abilities." Surfer says from the back of the grouping. Dumbledore nods, closing his mouth on the words that he'd been about to say.

"Two, don't use your abilities to help students cheat." Tess adds, brushing a lock of her currently unruly blue hair out of her face. Dumbledore nods again.

"Three, don't make any drastic changes." Ariety finishes. Dumbledore nods approvingly and sighs.

"Then I guess there's nothing else we have to discuss, unless Professor Stonecast has anything to add in?" Dumbledore asks, looking at a dark corner behind him and to his left.

"Nothing here, Professor." Professor Stonecast answers, stepping out of the shadows. She was tall and slim with almost-pitch black hair and electrified blue eyes.

"Actually, why don't we get this in writing?" Chloe suggests. [_Authoress's Note 1: Pun, again, is intended!] The assistant teachers nod, as the written word was binding for all of them. Most of the younger authors groan but nod in agreement. Venus look slightly put out but still went along with it. Professor Stonecast quickly scribbles the three rules the authors had said._

One by one, each of the authors sign the sheet of parchment, Venus grumbling all the way. After the last author, Tess as her surname came last comparatively, had signed the paper with a flourish; there was a flash of light.

When the light subsided, the parchment that the authors had signed was now a thin, grayish metal and yellow metal where the words and signatures were. Tess, being still near the table, leans over the formerly parchment and brushes a light finger across a line of words.

"Titainimite for the parchment and gold for the lettering." Tess says, turning to face the others looking oddly strained. "Near indestructible."

"Let me guess! It's only near indestructible because rules were made to be broken?" Surfer asks brashly. Tess glares at her junior of four years.

"No, you dimension-traveling dolt! It's only near indestructible because we need to follow the rules for it to be indestructible. But other than that, titainimite is indestructible on its own but with the gold…" Tess answers, still looking odd.

"What's this 'titainimite' you keep talking about?" Dumbledore asks, politely curious.

"It's a stone slash metal that's only found on Sarcastia… my world." Tess answers; worry lines creasing her cheeks and forehead.

"What does that mean?" Maia asks, sounding concerned.

"Someone wanted us here… and he or she knows each and every one of us…" Tess replies, letting the sentence peter out. [_Authoress's Note 2: Just for dramatic effect.]_

"Wait! What are those? Underneath the titaini-ma-stuff." Ray exclaims, pointing vigorously at the tablet.

Carefully, Circe and Liz move the stone and find eight pieces of parchment, all with varying schedules and all with one of each of the student authors' names on it.

"I think you're right, Tess…" Liz says, handing Tess her schedule. Tess reads over it and her eyes widen.

"Excuse me, one moment…" Tess says weakly, and falls to the floor in a dead faint.

"Tess!" Circe exclaims, dashing forward to help her friend.

"What's on that schedule?" Liz snaps, darting forward as well. Circe picks up the parchment in the unconscious authoress's hand and reads.

"What? 'Vraiment seulement Wendracon dominer'?" Circe reads aloud, handing the parchment to Liz.

"Truly only Wendracon rules?" Tawny translates, sounding puzzled. "Why would that make her pass out? If anything, it'd make her happy."

"It's a line from the Imperial anthem of Sarcastia." Surfer corrects quietly. The authors stare at him.

"Didn't any of you wonder why Wendracon and I are on such bad terms?" Surfer adds snappishly. "I had a month long stay there once and they sang that song once a week."

"Author meeting, tonight, entrance hall, half-hour before dinner." Ariety orders sharply. The authors nod.

"You're dismissed to your classes but be careful. Miss Moss, Miss Electra, please take Miss Wendracon to the Infirmary then get to your classes." Dumbledore instructs and leaves the room. The authors disperse. Professor Stonecast hangs back.

"Liz, don't worry about being late. It's only my prep hour." Professor Stonecast says and sweeps out of the chamber.

~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~

"Only a few others not of Sarcastian lineage know the anthem but they've promised never to sing it or tell anyone… and those that didn't, had it wiped from their memories." Tess says, pacing in the entrance hall. She'd recovered well in the hospital wing, if now a little leery of the nurse. For all of Madam Pomfrey's fussing, you'd've thought that Tess had been mortally wounded.

The other authors look at Surfer. "Hey! I like having my memories in tact thank you!" Surfer defends, glaring back. Tess rounds on the youngest member of the meeting.

"How much did you tell them?" Tess asks accusatorially. Surfer recoils away from the angered empress.

"I just told them that the line on your schedule was a line from the anthem, that's all!" Surfer exclaims, cowering away from Tess.

Tess grumbles and stands down, looking disappointed at missing her chance to pulverize Surfer.

"Okay. This means what?" Tawny asks.

"It means that this person that got us here is from Sarcastia and quite possibly has a score to settle with Tess." Ariety answers for the empress irritably. Tess, who had been about to answer, closes her mouth with an audible snap.

"Doesn't she have some sort of personal guard or something?" asks Chase. Tess glares at him.

"If I did have one with me, don't you think that they would have shown themselves by now." Tess snaps with a pointed glare at the third year Gryffindor.

 "Bite my head off, will you?" Chase mutters indignantly.

"No. Nasty flavor." Tess replies, smiling sweetly.

"Break it up you two." Circe commands and the two bickering authors glare at each other fit to kill.

"I do have a guard but that's on Parth. Besides, it hasn't been up to snuff ever since Gryffin Archiah disappeared." Tess says, still glaring at Chase but not as hard due to a strange glimmer in her mint green eyes.

"Okay. Keep eyes open and be on your guard at all times." Delia advises. The authors nod and head to their respective rooms and dorms.

Nothing major happened for the next month and a half. Unless you count Surfer trying to escape at every moment he thought he could and Tess being a smartass as usual.

~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~

First Year Double Potions- Gryffindor & Slytherin 

"Now if you add so much as a drop of water to this particular potion, you will severely regret it without me having to do a thing." Professor Snape warns menacingly. Ariety had a strange smile on her face as she catalogued this tidbit of information for the afternoon's First Year class.

Surfer Tsunamiya, at the back of the Slytherin section of the dungeon, absent-mindedly made the delicate potion while keeping a good deal of his attention on the "Dimensional Sea" [_Authoress's Note 3: The Dimensional Sea is the ocean between each and every dimension. The "Travelers", Surfer's race, traveled on their equivalent of a silver muggle surfboard through and across this sea as a means of travel, meeting new peoples and learning new things. The Travelers are now extinct accept for one remaining survivor, Surfer.]._

Each wave on this sea, to Surfer, had a rating. Surfer needed a specific rating for him to ride it out and if it wasn't a high enough rating, Surfer would merely wipeout and then land somewhere else in this dimension.

Surfer silently cheered as he thought he found one heading out of this world and throws his wand down. His wand turns into his staff, which then changes to the silver surfboard.

Hoping on the surfboard, Surfer yells "SEE YA!", and vanishes. The whole room stares at the place where Surfer had been for a whole fifteen seconds.

At the end of that fifteen seconds, however, Surfer came riding back in on his board, still on a wave of green water.

As he rode though the room, potions abruptly boiled and exploded on their creators when the water touched the contents.

Surfer crashes into the wall in the front of the classroom, his surfboard, again, a wand. He slowly slides down the wall, oblivious to the sopping and singed students and teachers.

"Ouch…" Surfer says as he collapses away from the wall.

"TSUNAMIYA!!!" Professor Snape yells. The Gryffindors were shocked as they had never yet seen Snape lecture one of his own house.

"Huh? Wha'd I do?" Surfer asks stupidly, and a soaking wet Snape began to steam.

~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~

Fifth Year Double Potions- Ravenclaw & Hufflepuff 

"—And that's how you make a Dead Man's Floating Potion." Professor Snape lectures the fifth years in his current class a week after the Surfer incident.

Tess Wendracon raises her hand politely, smiling her sickly sweet smile. "Um… Professor?"

"Yes, Miss Wendracon." Snape answers irritably.

"Could you show us how to make that first part? I know it'll be quick from the way you so excellently explained." Tess says, still smiling. The whole class was giving her dirty looks as though being that nice to the Head of Slytherin House was a crime in and of itself so not one of them noticed that she had quickly scribbled something down on a spare bit of parchment.

"Very well, Miss Wendracon." Snape says and starts making the first part of the potion, explaining poignant points as he went.

Just before Snape would start, though, Tess pounds her quill tip quickly at the end of her sentence. The ingrediants' order reverses completely but Snape didn't notice as he tosses various items into his cauldron.

After three liquids and four solid components, there was a great explosion that would rival one of Venus's pranks going off, shaking everything in the castle from the tables in the Great Hall to the very top of the North Tower where Trelawny was holding her Fourth year Gryffindor class.

The whole dungeon was smoky and Snape looked particularly blacked. Tess looks positively delighted, as though nothing had gone the least bit wrong. Ariety, on the other hand, had to stuff her fist in her mouth to stop herself from laughing outright.

"_I see! Just do everything in reverse and we'll get it right." Tess says, acting the part of a ditzy blonde from America. Snape's face turns red, noticeable even under all the soot._

"Padma, darling, take this down. Do everything in reverse." Tess instructs her neighbor at her table. "Did anyone miss that?" Tess asks, raising her voice to be heard in the entire dungeon. Ariety sits down on the floor, holding her sides to hide the fact that she was dying of laughter.

"Do everything the reverse of what our dear professor showed us to do." Tess says loudly. Many of the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs looked aghast but were biting their lips lest they start laughing at the amusing scene playing out in front of them.

"Wendracon!" Snape roars, finding his voice.

"Yes, Professor?" Tess asks sweetly, her smile back in place and it was as sugary as ever.

"Fifty points from Ravenclaw and get out of my sight!" Snape roars again. Tess didn't even flinch.

"But, Professor, I had no hand in this. I don't see why I should be penalized for your mistake. Didn't Professor Dumbledore say that all point deductions over fifty could be appealed if the penalty was not justified? I think I'll take this to Dumbledore and appeal it. Thank you for excusing me from class." Tess says sweetly, twisting his words around, sharpening them to dagger points and sending them back at him. Tess quickly exits the room before Snape could stop her.

"GET TO WORK!" Snape yells in frustration at the class in front of him. Ariety had a satisfied smirk on her face the entire remainder of the hour.

~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~

Two weeks later, October sixteenth~ 

It was dinnertime. The entire school was currently dining on the food of feast proportions when a strange wind blew through the Great Hall.

"What the…" many say as a shadowed figure forms above the tables.

"Ah…" the form says, looking about the hall, pausing briefly as he saw each pair of student authors and the quartet of authoresses at the head table.

"My dear authors, so glad you all could join me." The form says in a definite masculine voice.

"What do you want?" Ray shouts bravely from the Slytherin table.

"Why… A battle of the wits my fellow writer, Ray Fira; age thirteen." The form answers, gesturing broadly in false welcome. Ray recoils in fear. She hadn't told him how old she was.

"Who are you?" Chloe yells from the Hufflepuff table.

"You can call me the Dark Archer, Chloe Frazier; seventh year." The figure answers again, seeming to smile with delight as Chloe sinks back to her seat.

"Why do you want to fight us?" Venus calls from the Gryffindor table. 

"I don't want to fight you. Not just yet anyway, my dear Venus McGonagall. You see I do not fight uneducated opponents. I will not fight you until you can figure out who I really am. I'll leave you clues, granted, but you have to put them together." Dark Archer explains.

"What's the point of fighting us?" Chase yells up at the Dark Archer from his spot near Venus.

"You see, conquering this world without some equal opposition would be quite dull, even if there is magic here, Chase Phoenixcal. I see you're named for the phoenix; the ever rising. Do you, too rise from the ashes?" the Dark Archer asks, sounding almost innocent.

"NO!" Circe cries from the Head Table, standing and knocking her chair back in the process.

Chase realized what the Archer meant too late to do anything. Chase had, almost literally, gone up in smoke before he could so much as scream. All that remained was ashes that drifted slowly to the floor.

"Here's your first clue. You know I'm not of this world. I'm from one of yours and two of you know me well. That's all… Until next we meet…" and the Dark Archer vanished in a swirl of darkness.

Circe collapses into tears as pandemonium breaks in the Hall. Tess runs up to the Head table to comfort her friend. Delia, Liz, Ariety and the other authors look panicked under the false expressions of confusion.

"Attention!" Dumbledore cries over the racket, an unsuccessful attempt to regain order. Dumbledore shoot purple sparks to gain everyone's attention and stop the hysteria.

"Go to your houses. Don't panic. We'll get the situation under control!" Dumbledore says loudly in order to be heard over the resuming hysterics.

Before anyone could leave, though, a young man of about fifteen or sixteen bursts into the Hall looking on top of the world.

"Hello Hogwarts! Alex Bakare is in the house. Well… that can be fixed if the Hat will… What? Did I miss the party?" the boy announces loudly, oblivious to the tragedy that had happened just moments before.

_Authoress's Note 4 and Disclaimer: Thank you all for letting me borrow these characters. Harry Potter and all original characters belong to J.K. Rowling. Ray Fira is property of Marie (rieb7@hotmail.com), Ariety Blythe and Chloe Frazier belong to Kel (Valentine715@aol.com), Venus McGonagall stars as herself (Her Author Page), Tawny Miryton belongs to Meg (FunnyGurl895@aol.com), Liz Electra belongs to Liz (Her Author Page), Circe Moss belongs to Circe (Her Author Page), Delia Phinium belongs to Pat (Trishd29@aol.com), Chase Phoenixcal belongs to Chase (Chase1312@aol.com), Maia Rahmlal belongs to Natalia (TOONatalia@aol.com), Surfer Tsunamiya belongs to my brother, Pory (His Author Page), and Tess Wendracon belongs to me! The New Author and explanations in Chapter Three. Tah-tah! _

~Queen Tessandry de Sanyochisei~__


	3. The Second Clue

**Chapter Three**

The Second Clue

By Queen Tessandry de Sanyochisei

The Great Hall had emptied of all but the teachers and a few students, one prefect from each house and the Head Boy and Girl, and, no surprise here, the Authors. 

Dumbledore was, of course, still in control of the situation.

"Rosa, please send an owl to Ivy. We're going to need her to help the students. Violet, Angela, try to figure out who this Dark Archer is. Tradrin, Nicholas, find out how he got in here in the first place. Minerva, Severus, Flora, Medea, try to calm down your Houses."

The teachers nod and walk out of the Hall to do their various tasks.

"Prefects, Mr. Avis, Miss Veliurn, help your Head of House calm your houses down. Console those you can until we can get Ivy at work."

A chorus of 'Yes, sir's and they left as well. All that remained now were the teachers and the distraught (or awed in Alex's case) authors. The teachers had moved away from the authors, leaving them to deal with Alex.

"Wow! I didn't know that Medea Jeminy, Rosa McCloud and Tradrin Fatespirit really existed! I thought they were just part of –" Alex says excitedly but Tess cut him off.

"As much as I enjoy hearing from a fan, don't talk about fanfiction or books here. Get me?" Tess snaps, glaring from where Circe still quietly wept.

"What? I don't get why you're not excited. We're actually _inside_ –"

"Bakare! Shut UP!" Tess yells at the over-eager author. "Do you have one milligram of empathy? We've just lost a member of our group to a nasty and his replacement is an overly excitable, deadhead with no sense to keep his mouth shut when told? Not a very good trade off, if you ask me, even if I didn't like Chase in the first place."

Alex had recoiled from the empress during her rant, as her hair had seemed to billow up and around her head with no wind in the Hall to stir it. Surfer quietly sidles up next to Alex.

"Tip one, don't get Tess pissed off. I got locked in her dungeon for a month just for breaking a window." Surfer whispers conspiratorially. Alex let out a low whistle, amazed at the extreme punishments Tess would foist on anyone who crossed her.

Everyone had taken a disliking to the new author, sans Surfer who liked anyone who got on Tess' bad side since it meant company for him. 

"Stats." Ariety says, the one word sounding like a snake strike.

"Alex Bakare, 16, USA." Alex says quickly, not wanting to further aggravate his fellow (currently hostile) authors.

"Here's the deal. Yes, we're in the HP world. Don't talk about how amazing it is and how exciting it is to be here. It disturbs the locals if you talk about them just being characters in a book. Secondly, you're not trusted. For all we know, that stupid Dark Archer sent you here."

"Whose the –" Alex starts but Liz cut him off.

"He's the nasty that killed Chase. He vanished right before you came in so we have every reason to suspect you." Liz calmly explains, no trace of anger or condemnation on her voice.

"Don't make it seem so minor, Liz. Help me get Circe to her room. I don't know where it is." Tess says, sounding as though the next person who rubbed her the wrong way would wind up very injured. Liz nods and takes one side of Circe.

"C'mon, C-girl." Tess coaches as they get the young woman to her feet.

The three girls leave the group. As they got to the doors, Tess turns and glares at Alex. Alex shrinks in on himself under her green-eyed penetrating stare. To Alex's immense reprieve, Tess left after a few moments.

"Tessa, Tessa, Tessa…" Venus sighs, shaking her head. "Sorry about her Alex. She's just over protective of her friends. She's not upset over Chase but she's upset that Circe's been hurt. It makes her frustrated and frustrating."

"No problem. Just someone remind me to buy her a broom…"Alex says shakily. Venus laughs then stares, wide-eyed, at Alex.

"That's bloody brill, Alex! Just BRILL! A broom!" Venus exclaims and dashes off to talk to Dumbledore.

"Why don't I like it when she does that?" Tawny asks Maia, who was standing next to her. Maia shrugs, grimacing as well.

~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~

Two days later, in a deserted classroom, the student authors held a meeting. Alex, having been sorted to Gryffindor, had been generally accepted into the fold. After all, why would Dark Archer choose a Gryffindor to do his dirty work? And why would the Gryffindor do it in the first place?

"All right, mates. I've already cleared this with Dumbledore and Hooch so there's no getting out of this." Venus says as she pulls a large, bell-shaped parcel and places it on the table between her and the rest of the student authors.

Venus pulls the string that was holding the parcel together and seven varying, but very much new, brooms roll out to gleam dully in the dim light of the almost deserted classroom. One red-tinted _Firebolt_ and darkish Nimbus 2001, two pale brooms with "Windrider" in bright gold, and three blue-washed brooms with "Rainstorm" written in silver. Chloe and Tess each take a broom and look at them inquiringly.

"You want us to clean?" Ray asks cynically, her usual hyper-ness absent.

The rest of the authors were staring at Venus now, who was smiling fit to crack her face.

"You didn't…" Tess says, staring in disbelief at Venus.

"YEP! Authors Vs. Gryffindor, two weeks from last Saturday!" Venus says proudly and Surfer, Tawny, Maia, and Ray promptly faceplant.

"Well… If we can't get out, we might as well get in… Who's playing what?" Alex says quietly, not wanting a glare from the rest of the group, or more specifically, Tess.

"Well… Chloe'll play Keeper and she gets the _Nimbus_; Alex, Ray and Tawny are the Chasers and they get the _Rainstorm_s; Maia's our Seeker so she gets the _Firebolt_; and Tessa and I are the Beaters and we get the _Windrider_s."

"Hey! What about me?" Surfer exclaims in complaint as the others select their brooms.

"Oh honestly… Will you please remember that _First Years_ aren't allowed brooms, Tsunamiya?" Tess snaps as she selects a _Windrider_ and hands the other to Venus.

"Why does everyone _have_ to remind me I'm a First Year?" Surfer asks in resignation.

"I don't know, Surf-n-turf. Maybe because you keep forgetting?" Ray asks examining her Rainstorm.

Tess, staring at Ray, sets her broom down and walks up to Ray. Abruptly, Tess takes Ray's hand and shakes it firmly.

"Thank you! You may be hyper and Slytherin but I like you!" Tess says, still shaking Ray's hand. Ray smiles warily but gradually accepts the Empress' praise.

"Okidays… We've got practice for the half hour after lunch until the match to pull everything together. See you all, _except_ Surfer, tomorrow after lunch. Cheers!" With that, the Authors meeting broke. 

Ray, looking smug, and Surfer, looking downcast, walked to their Slytherin dorms in loud silence, Ray's _Rainstorm_ the subject of Surfer's sourness. 

Venus and Alex walked to Gryffindor Tower in companionable chitchat, if only to discuss how in all the blue blazes of the imaginary place that Christians like to damn people to the Authors would stand a chance against the unstoppable Gryffindor Quidditch team. 

Chloe and Tawny strolled slowly in the direction of Hufflepuff Tower, quietly comparing brooms.

Maia and Tess were silent all the way to Ravenclaw Tower. Maia gave the large shelving unit on the fifth floor the password ("Birchwood") and entered. The Ravenclaw Common room was deserted save a couple late studiers and a girl curled in her chair by the fire. 

As Maia continued to her dorm, oblivious to the studiers and the girl, Tess stands frozen by the edge of study tables and chairs. Unwillingly, her feet took her to the girl curled by the fire.

Tess places her hand lightly on Cho Chang's shoulder. Cho snaps alert and whirls to face the empress. Tess had, not her usual forbidding look on her face but an understanding and kindly look directed at the older girl.

Cho quickly wipes away the tears that had formed during her reverie. "What do you want?" Cho asks, her voice cracking at the end.

Tess inwardly winced but she had to do this now that she'd started. It would help herself as much as it would help Cho.

"I want to help." Tess responds quietly, removing her hand and taking the seat next to the troubled Sixth Year.

"You can't. No one can understand." Cho says and returns to staring at the fire.

Tess sighs and says quietly, "You'd be amazed…"

"Shock me." Cho snaps, glaring at the young empress.

"I know about Cedric –" Tes starts and Cho winces at the mention of the handsome Hufflepuff. "But let me tell you my story. Maybe then you'll know that someone _can_ help? And if not help, understand?"

Cho sizes Tess up. Her icy blue hair was unruly and her forehead lacked her usual silver circlet. Her bracelets jangled softly, like bells chiming, as she rearranged herself on her chair and her nails flashed silver every time they caught the firelight. 

What caught Cho's eyes though was the sad look that was in Tess's own pale green eyes. Cho'd seen the same look every time she glanced at a mirror ever since she'd heard of Cedric's death.

"Alright."

"His name was Gryffin Archiah…" Tess starts, her mind traveling through space and time to her home and the boy not much older than herself from her guard that she'd loved.

~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~

"Welcome, fellow students and Professors, to, quite possibly, the most unusual Quidditch match in Hogwartian history. For the first match of the year we have the Authors vs. Gryffindor. It should be interesting how the assortment of houses on the Authors' team will effect their playing ability…"

Alex, having, by some weird fluke of trust, been elected Captain, shakes hands with his Gryffindor counterpart, Alicia Spinnet. As Madam Hooch's whistle signaled both teams into the air, Lee Jordan could be heard explaining how the Authors' points would be split between the players respective houses, Slytherin getting about half of what the other houses would due to the fact that there was only one Slytherin on the Authors team. (**Surfer Tsunamiya's Note: HEY! I would have been on the team… Except for my stupid sister, Tess putting me in FIRST YEAR!!! I'll get you later for this Tess!!!!!!**)

Tess and Venus almost immediately got into a weird Bludger beating competition with Fred and George that remotely resembled a doubles tennis match. Maia and Harry were pretty evenly matched as Maia had this strange ADD-like behavior that allowed her to listen to the commentary, avoid what Bludgers the Twins managed to get through Tess and Venus (with one of the two Authoresses following closely) and search for the snitch while keeping an eye on Harry. (_Authoress's Note: Believe me! It CAN be done!_)

Chloe and Angelina were pretty evenly matched as well, both having blocked all but a few attempts on their respective goal hoops.

You can guess that the Chasers weren't too mismatched either. Contrary to Lee's elusion to possible discord in the Authors team, the three Author Chasers; Tawny (_Hufflepuff, remember?_), Alex (_Gryffindor_), and Ray (_Slytherin_); worked as seamlessly as any other team.

The points slowly mounted on both sides over the next hour. Maia gave up on listening to the commentary and avoiding Tess or Venus chasing a Bludger at about the time the score was 50 – 50.

The score didn't change much over the next five minutes save for Ray managing to get past Angelina by faking a pass to Alex, who was beside her, then making a toss for the goal.

The sun had just hit its zenith when Maia sees the flash of gold and silver zip past her. Without another second wasted, she zoomed off in pursuit of the Snitch. She didn't need to look back to see that Harry was following her closely.

Abruptly, the Snitch took a downward turn after sharply avoiding Chaser Diana Featheredmoon. Maia dove after it. Harry dove as soon as he saw Maia do so, diving after the Snitch at a different angle from his Author counterpart, allowing him to catch up with her.

As the snitch leveled off several inches from the ground, a dark hand shot out from underneath the pitch (think along the lines of the freaky zombie from the grave thing) and caught the Snitch. The two Seekers hadn't had time to stop their dive but their brooms were frozen and slowly rising into the air without any aide of steering from their owners.

At the same time, the Dark Archer slowly rose from the ground, the Snitch still trapped in a raised fist.

"I win." He says while looking at the Snitch. He then clenches his hand. An audible crack and the Archer opened his hand and tipped it to one side. Little pieces of silver and gold fall to the ground.

The game had come to a very quiet halt. Serenity, who'd just been passed the Quaffle, had fumbled it, leaving it to drift slowly to the ground. The Archer drifts upward leisurely until he was fairly centered in the game.

Tess screams an incomprehensible curse at the Archer as she whacked a Bludger, then the other, at him. All he had to do though was wave an impatient hand at the two black balls and they fell to the earth below.

"Such language, Tessandrilene… And you're an _empress_? Tisk, tisk." He says, scolding with a dark smile. He had a trick up his sleeve, and the Authors knew it.

"Shattering winds." The Archer says and winds formed around him then exploded outward with such force that would make any tornado jealous.

Tess fell from her broom, apparently unconscious, but Venus caught her before she'd fallen far then she was blasted by the wind towards Tess's broom, which was now flying towards the Whomping Willow. Serenity, Katie, Angelina, Chloe, Tawny, Alex, Ray and Maia had tumbled off the seat of their brooms but had managed to keep their grip on them. 

Diana hadn't been so lucky. She was fast falling towards the pitch below. Serenity, having retrieved her seat on her broom, starts to follow in a steep dive to catch her but Harry got there first, catching the Second Year Gryffindor a scant two feet from the ground.

Venus, straining to keep Tess, still out cold, on her broom, and the rest of the Authors look towards where the Archer had last been only to find him gone. The two teams landed and started to take count of what'd happened.

Diana had passed out from shock and relief. Surfer was found in the Slytherin side of the stands, out cold like Tess. 

Alex found a piece of cloth with a weird design so he picked it up and pocketed it to show his group later. Right now, he needed to follow the others to the Hospital Wing.

~*~^~*~Small Switch of PoV~*~^~*~

I had gotten to the Hospital Wing as soon as I could, having only a blissfully short meeting with the Head Girl, Morwen Veliurn, and Bumble-dore, as I prefer to reference him, to stop me.

The new one, Alex, had found my latest clue. I had to see if they'd figure out that piece.

I had a grin on my face by the time I'd reached the Infirmary. I quickly wiped it from my face. I was there under the ruse that I was there to see Diana. The only reason my being there was plausible was because she was in my house and I was known to do weird things every once in a while.

I bustle in, heading straight to the side of Diana's bed that was nearest Tsunamiya's bed. I hate him as much as I hate the whimsical empress, which is one reason why I knocked them out with more than the gust of wind I had under my command. However, being near his bed was the only way I could listen in on their conversation.

I barely paid heed to Serenity's pressed greeting. She would be busy fumbling over her gratitude to Harry for a while yet. She never was too good with thanking him.

The Traveler moans. I felt my heart leap. This is what I'd come to hear.

"What happened?" Tsunamiya asks groggily, sitting up. I pretend to be watching the unconscious Second Year as I listened to what the Authors discussed.

"You were knocked out. Can't figure out why but Tess is still out." Ray answers. I inwardly smirk; the idiot queen would get what she deserved… Pity she wouldn't know it was me all along until the end.

"That stupid Archer, can't he leave Quidditch alone?" Venus grouses. _Of course I can't, McGonagall._ I think to myself.

"What was his clue? Better yet, did he leave one or was he just toying with us?" Maia snaps. I supposed she had a right to be mad but in answer, I thought yes to all parts.

"I think this is the clue for this time." Alex says. I couldn't look but I figured he'd pull it from his pocket now and show it to the rest.

"What is that? A crest?" Tawny asks ignorantly.

"Looks like a Familial Coat of Arms." Chloe replies. "I don't understand the design though."

I had to stop myself from laughing outright. Any idiot could see what the design was.

"It's the constellation Orion, the Hunter." Alex chimes. Maybe I'd get my match after all.

"What's a hunter got to do with Archer boy?" Ariety, the only adult in the lot at the moment but that didn't signify much. She was still baffled.

"You meant Orion the Archer, didn't you, Alex?" Tsunamiya asks. _Bingo, Maintenance Boy. You've just hit pay dirt._ I think privately. Now things would get interesting.

"No… It's Orion the Hunter." Alex responds. I had figured he'd be ignorant of what other planets call the same constellations but not stubborn as well.

"Here, yes. Not on Parth. It's called the Archer there." Tsunamiya replies, just as stubborn.

"That only fits with his name, Dark_ Archer_. Can't you tell us anything else?" Ray snaps. She was an idiot… She couldn't recognize that the only one that was close was the idiot Traveler.

"Let me see it and I might." Tsunamiya snaps back. Oh, a fight brewing… I could enjoy this.

Unfortunately, Ray snatched the fabric from Alex and shoved it under Tsunamiya's nose. Tsunamiya leans back and takes the patch from her, uncrumpling it and laying it on his bed covers.

"It seems familiar… I can't place it though." Tsunamiya says, sounding slightly reminiscent. Just as well he couldn't. The only one that could help them would be the empress and she would be out for a while yet.

"Oh well… We need to wait then. Tess'll prob'ly be more help if it has to deal with her planet." Maia says in resignation. She'd just ended the discussion and they were leaving, except for Venus, who was sitting in between the two beds. Pomfrey was notorious for over-fussing over minor maladies.

As if on cue, Diana groaned. Serenity immediately abandoned her attempts at thanking Harry to sit with her sister.

I stand and leave. I pause at the door and turn around. The blue-haired empress was still out soundly. She'd drift from the unconsciousness to slumber. I psychically plant, in her head, the dream that fueled my hatred of her. She would dream it when she was actually asleep. I would make her regret the day she ruined my life.

I turn and walk to the Great Hall. No use in missing supper over that egotistical, tempermental empress.

_Authoress's Note and Disclaimer: Thank you all for letting me borrow these characters. Harry Potter and all original characters belong to J.K. Rowling. Ray Fira is property of Marie (rieb7@hotmail.com), Ariety Blythe and Chloe Frazier belong to Kel (Valentine715@aol.com), Venus McGonagall stars as herself (crystalvenusmcgonagall@yahoo.com), Tawny Miryton belongs to Meg (FunnyGurl895@aol.com), Liz Electra belongs to Liz (Lizard3100@aol.com), Circe Moss belongs to Circe (WatermelonSugar7@aol.com), Delia Phinium belongs to Pat (Trishd29@aol.com), Chase Phoenixcal belongs to Chase (Chase1312@aol.com), Maia Rahmlal belongs to Natalia (TOONatalia@aol.com), Surfer Tsunamiya belongs to my brother, Pory (Porygon11@aol.com), and Tess Wendracon belongs to me! More action and clues in Chapter Four. Tah-tah! _

~Queen Tessandry de Sanyochisei~__


	4. The Sarcastian Crisis

**Chapter Four**

The Sarcastian Crisis

By Queen Tessandry de Sanyochisei

The planet Parth, home of Dragons, Elves and the Sarcastian Empire, is much like Earth. It has about the same mass, orbit around the sun, land to water distribution and seasons. The tides are different because Parth has three moons; Eneles, Simetra and Otel.

The Dragons' continent, sprawling across what would be the northwestern part of the globe to us, is mountainous and rocky. The Elven continent, located on the equator to the east of the Dragons, is lush and forested. 

The Sarcastian continent, a lake spotted continent north and east of the Elves, has the only truly visible civilization on the planet. Mountain ranges hem the north and south, coasts with sandy beaches on the west and east.

On the west coast, set a little to the north and east of the continental middle, is the capital city of Parthmet. The imperial residence, a castle with carved towers of ebony-colored stone, dominates in the eastern sector of the city.

This castle is where Empress Tessandrilene Wendracon de Sanyochisei would be at this time of year, were she not otherwise trapped in the Harry Potter world.

It had been three months since the empress had vanished without a trace. There'd been a small ripple of panic when she'd gone missing but now the interim government was in place and running smoothly. Tessandrilene's older cousin and most trusted advisor, Lord High Chancellor Aymery Wendracon, had been chosen by the Council of Lords to head the government until such a time when either the empress was found or the throne would be passed to the next in line.

Aymery was now weary. The investigation was winding down as all the leads lead to dead ends. The time had come to do what he dreaded; ask the elves.

The Sarcastian-Elven relationship was a bloody one. The most recent war had ended just a year ago with a non-aggression pact co-negotiated by the Imperial Regent, Dowager Empress Madia de Sanyochisei, and the empress.

The last thing that the Sarcastians needed now was for the Elves to take advantage of the weakness of their foe. 

_I have to word this carefully. I can't accuse them but I can't let them know we don't know where Tessa is… _Aymery thinks, staring at the paper on the desk in front of him. He was sitting in Tessandrilene's study when a page knocked on the door.

"Enter." Aymery says, setting the paper to one side.

"Your Grace, the investigation's hit eight more dead ends. As of now, there are only a few nobles that they haven't investigated, your Grace included. The people are starting to accuse the Elves." The page says, bowing.

"Please remind them they _should_ investigate me. After all, I _am_ benefiting the _most_ out of this situation." Aymery replies.

"Of course, your Grace." The page says, bowing again as Aymery dismissed him.

Aymery stands and stares out the study's window at the noonday sky. The ocean glittered brightly a fair distance from the palace.

_Tessa, wherever you are, get back soon. I don't know if the pact will hold with you gone._ Aymery thinks as he returns to the desk to resume writing the inquiry.

~*~^~*~Across the Solar System and a Dimension Away on Earth…~*~^~*~

November 17th~

"You did that on purpose!"

"It was an accident! I didn't see you!"

"Sure you didn't. My hat, you didn't."

"I _didn't_."

Tess sighs, setting her flatware down with a clatter. The last thing she wanted to do that day was break up one of the many verbal fracas that seemed to spring up between the Ravenclaws and Slytherins. This time it was Katelin Blackfrost, a First Year Ravenclaw, and Millicent Bulstrode, a Fifth Year Slytherin.

"Will you two STOP!?" she demands, donning her cloak of authority.

"She started it!" the two girls say at the same time.

"Will _one_ of you tell me what happened?" Tess asks, trying to be sensible. It was hopeless though. The two girls had started arguing again.

"Stop this now!" Garret Avis says, sweeping over to the fight.

"Gary! She says I tripped her on purpose! I only stuck my foot into the isle so I could get up!" Katelin says, and runs to the Head Boy, the small Ravenclaw hiding behind him.

"That little –" Millicent starts, raising a finger accusingly.

"That's enough Miss Bulstrode." Garret snaps. Not even the most stubborn of souls would have disobeyed the tone he used on the errant Slytherin.

"Now. Did anyone hear if Kate apologized?" Garret asks the nearby Ravenclaws and Slytherins.

A general murmur of affirmative sweeps the students nearest. Tess's features slip easily into her practiced neutral expression.

"Miss Bulstrode, I see no reason for you to be upset. Kate apologized for tripping you. Just out of curiosity, do you know anyone who would apologize after purposely tripping you?"

Millicent threw Garret a short-lived look of rebellion before she strode off, frustrated.

Tess sighs heavily, her unbiased façade gone, "They're worse than the elves… The elves at least listened."

"Elves?" Garret asks, curiosity getting the better of him.

"Oh, it's nothing you'd know about. Just bad political situation…"

"You'll have to explain it to me." Garret says. "What's wrong?" he asks as a look of abject horror on her face.

"_The elves!_" she exclaims and careens out of the Great Hall towards Ravenclaw Tower.

_Gods all! The Council of Lords mightn't have found my plans for an interim government and have Lord Quinton Camdron in charge while I'm gone! I have nothing against him but he's made it perfectly clear that he doesn't find me fit to rule._

_Or worse! All I needed was to come back from this to find my kingdom in ruins! All it'd take is a false word from home or an Elven attack of opportunity and there goes what little political stability I'd managed to create! _

_Why'd that stupid Archer have to steal me away to Hogwarts right when things were so critical!? Damn him! If I'm one of the two who know him, I'm going to personally enjoy killing him! He'd just better hope that he's not from Parth, because then I can cause some _real_ damage!_

"Peregrine falcon." Tess snaps at the bookcase she'd pelted to. The bookcase swings outward to reveal the entrance to the Ravenclaw Common Room, a.k.a. the cool library.

The walls, what little that wasn't covered by bookcases, were a pretty indigo. The bookcases themselves had doors on them with different symbols representing the different topics. On the right were the school topics but on the left were the muggle books that'd been brought before and left. Most were romances but there weren't small numbers of science fiction and fantasy (that were very dusty, I might add).

"Anyone good at divination or scrying?!" Tess yells to the common room. The older students look at her like she wasn't supposed to ask about something so frilly as Divination.

However, a Prefect got up. "I'm a fair hand at scrying. Seventh year Shamanism reviewed it last week. Why? What's the matter?"

"Listen, I need to see what's happening at my home. I don't want to be surprised when this is over and I get back there."

"What? You think that war'll break out over three months?" someone jeered. Tess locates who'd said that; a Third year boy.

"Yes, that's exactly what I think! Parth isn't exactly the politically stable planet in the system; let alone Sarcastia, a stable country!" She snaps, setting the Third year firmly back in his place

Tess feels the panic returning its edge to her voice. _I should've just gone to Venus._

"What d'you think, Ravenclaws?" the Prefect asks those around her.

"We _don't_ have any lessons until three…" A Sixth year points out.

"We've finished our homework for Monday…" A Fourth year adds.

"Is that a yes?" the Prefect asks.

"Why not?" Was the consensus.

The panic ensued over how they (the group of Shamanism students that'd volunteered to perform the necessary magic) would scry as no Ravenclaw had even a small pocket mirror and there were no mirrors in the Tower bathrooms for some strange reason.

"Let's take over one of the public toilets. They all have mirrors."

"Which one?"

"How about the girls' one on the third floor?"

"What? The one by Professor Stonecast and Madam McCloud's office?"

"No, the one levitating four floors above Snape's office. Of _course_, that one."

"They _are_ less likely to ask questions than Professors McGonagall and Jeminy by the second floor toilets."

"Let's go!"

"A Ravenclaw raid!" Some second year was getting carried away.

"You know… That toilet is really small. Maybe only Fourth years and up should go." Morwen Veliurn, the Head Girl, suggests sagely. She gives the greener students a glance then nods. "Yep. Only Fourth years and up should come."

There was a massed groan.

"C'mon Morwen! It'd be fun! And the first raid that Ravenclaw's been on since the Raiders themselves were here!"

"Tough! That's final!"

~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~

The battalion of Ravenclaws was firmly entrenched in the third floor girls' toilets. However, now there was a rush for other necessary supplies. Madam Rosa McCloud and Professor Violet Stonecast, on their way back to their offices, halt as they see the comings and goings in the girls' toilets and the students going in and out were _not_ all girls.

"HOLD IT! Did everyone forget that I could just write the ingredients up?"

Tess's voice rises over the hubbub in the bathroom, silencing it for a moment, and then the noise rises again with demands for quill and parchment.

Rosa and Violet quickly duck into a long disused classroom as the boy that'd run off to get a quill and some parchment rushes past them.

Rosa quickly casts her own scrying window, focusing on the bathroom not ten feet away. Violet adds her own power to the scrying spell, making the window clear and stable.

"C'mon! Hand me the quill! Where's the parchment? Oh forget it! I'll just write on my hand."

It was all Violet and Rosa could do to slap up spells that would block sound coming from the room and close the door before they crack up laughing. When they'd finished, Rosa removes the spells, opens the door, and returns to watching the events in the toilets.

What was happening was one of the mirrors showed a very wavering picture zooming in on a jet-black palace with towering spires.

"Get back! Your breathing is making the picture destabilize!"

Out in the corridor:

"Rosa? Violet?" Professor Tradrin Fatespirit calls as he rounds the corner.

"Shhh!!!" the two teachers scold and drag him into the classroom to watch.

In the bathroom:

"What was that? Oh never mind." Tess asks then returns to watching the mirror. A black cat was pacing on what can only be called a throne.

"OH! Isis! Don't worry, kitty-baby. Mommy's gonna be home soon."

Out in the corridor:

"What's going on?" Tradrin demands, in complete confusion over why two teachers would be spying on the girls' bathroom, let alone drag him into it.

"Looks like Ravenclaw House has decided to take over a toilet and scry to one of the Author's homeworld."

Tradrin snorts, covering his laughter quickly.

In the bathroom:

"Shut up kid! Go to some other toilet!"

"But I –" A pitiful first year Hufflepuff whines from without the toilets.

"No buts! Go!"

"Hush Mandy!"

"Both of you hush!" Tess snaps at the two fourth years.

The mirror was now showing a woman with dark skin and contrasting white hair and pale-gold eyes staring out a window looking depressed.

"Mom." Tess breathes, raising a hand as if to touch her mother through the spell. Someone grabs her hand before she touches the mirror.

"Don't touch. It was bad enough with breathing on it, remember?"

"Right." Tess answers still looking longingly at her mother.

Out in the corridor:

"Tradrin? Where'd you go off to?" Professor McGonagall had made her way up to the third floor in search of the Shamanism professor.

"Hey… Hey, Minerva… Over here... Keep quiet." Rosa says quietly poking her head into the corridor.

Minerva makes her way into the classroom to see what the three teachers were doing in a deserted classroom.

In the bathroom:

"At least there aren't any craters, so the elves haven't attacked yet. Wait! Go up those stairs! It's to my study!" Tess exclaims as the image passes the familiar stairwell.

The picture turned to go up the stairs. The viewers soon found themselves looking in on a classic study. A young man in his twenties was pacing back and forth behind the large desk.

"Oh good! They found my plans for an interim government." Tess sighs in relief, sending a thankful prayer to the deities above.

Out in the corridor:

Three more faculty members had been dragged into the scry/spy session. A few had made up chairs to sit and watch the happenings. Currently, they were chuckling at the relief the young empress showed over something an adult should be worried over.

"She seems well-adjusted to her responsibilities." Rosa says to Violet and Tradrin.

"It's a shame that someone so young had to grow up so fast." Tradrin replies.

"I wonder how long she's lived with all that hanging over her head." Violet adds.

In the bathroom:

"What's that though? Who could he be writing… Oh no! Aymery! Not to the elves! Is there anyway to get sound on this thing?"

"Sorry Tess."

"Drat! Okay… Can we zoom in on that piece of paper on the desk? Yes!" Tess leans forward to get a better look at the letter her cousin was composing. She reads it, mumbling and nodding, under her breath. 

She closes her eyes, nodding a final time. 

"Thank you Aymes." Tess says with a sigh. Unfortunately, as with breathing on the mirror caused the image to waver, sighing on the mirror causes the image to completely dissipate. Tess falls forward and hits her head on the mirror.

In the 'Viewing Room':

The teacher nearest the door, Gaia Vector, quickly shuts it and slaps up the spell that would block sound coming from the room. The teachers then laugh, save Minerva who only had one of her rare smiles on, at the irony that'd just occurred.

When they'd finished rolling on the floor, Violet peeks out into the corridor only to see Medea Jeminy, Astronomy professor and Head of Ravenclaw House, seeming to tower over her like she was a student again.

"I suppose there'll be a viewing tonight in the teachers' lounge?" Medea asks but it was inching steadily towards a demand.

"Nine sound good?" Tradrin asks from behind Violet.

"I'll bring the popcorn!" the old Muggle Studies professor, Cathy Drahl, says sounding like a twenty-year-old.

"Sounds good." Medea says and turns around only to find herself blocked by a veritable wall of passing Ravenclaw students.

Tess went straight to find Venus and tell her what'd happened.

"You were right. You should've just come to me." Venus says, looking up from her game of Fifty-two Pick-up.

"That's not the point. I just wanted to let you know that you could do the same for the rest of us. Spare the faculty from having to deal with a lot of sudden House raids on the toilets." Tess replies.

"Oh… So you just want Ravenclaw to have had all the fun?" Venus accuses the not-much-younger empress.

"Fine. Do what you want. But Gryffindor is more likely to get into trouble for it." Tess states nonchalantly, starting to walk away.

"What? What d'you mean by that?!" Venus demands standing up.

"Just what I said. Gryffindor's more likely to get into trouble for a toilet raid. Ravenclaw apparently hasn't done anything of the sort since the Raiders were here and Gryffindor does stuff like that on a practically monthly basis." Tess explains.

"I guess you're right." Venus admits begrudgingly.

"That wasn't so hard to admit, now was it, V?" Tess teases the older Gryffindor.

"Shut up." Venus snaps. "Tell the others there'll be a scry session not next Saturday but the next Saturday. I have plans this weekend and next."

"Trying to demolish the school with the help of the twins and Serenity, are you?" Tess asks.

"I might." Venus says, neither admitting to nor denying her accusation.

"I'll go talk to the others. Surfer doesn't need it though. He doesn't have a planet that I know of." Tess grimaces. "I have the misfortune of knowing a lot about him."

"Oh?" Venus asks, implying something more.

"Not like that, you silly girl! Sheesh… You Gryffindors and your imaginations." Tess sighs.

"Ravenclaws aren't much better." Venus returns.

"Just play your game. I'm going." Tess snaps and stalks over to the Hufflepuff table to talk to Tawny and Chloe.

"Hey hun!" Venus calls after the retreating empress.

"What?" Tess asks, turning around.

"Happy Sweet Sixteen!"

_If it were happy or sweet, I'd be home, and my country wouldn't be on the brink of war._

_Authoress's Note and Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all original characters belong to J.K. Rowling. All others, save those listed hence, are mine! Ray Fira is property of Marie (rieb7@hotmail.com), Ariety Blythe and Chloe Frazier belong to Kel (Valentine715@aol.com), Venus McGonagall stars as herself (crystalvenusmcgonagall@yahoo.com), Tawny Miryton belongs to Meg (FunnyGurl895@aol.com), Liz Electra belongs to Liz (Lizard3100@aol.com), Circe Moss belongs to Circe (WatermelonSugar7@aol.com), Delia Phinium belongs to Pat (Trishd29@aol.com), Alex Bakare belongs to Lazymeoo7 (lazymeoo7@msn.com), Maia Rahmlal belongs to Natalia (TOONatalia@aol.com), Surfer Tsunamiya belongs to my brother, Pory (Porygon11@aol.com), Garret Avis belongs to GryffindorArcher (stararcher@yahoo.com), and Tess Wendracon belongs to me! More action and clues in Chapter Five. Tah-tah! _

~Queen Tessandry de Sanyochisei~


	5. The Conspiracy Theories

**Chapter Five**

The Conspiracy Theories

By Queen Tessandry de Sanyochisei

It all started on the first of September with ten missing person reports in one day, all within a half-hour of each other and in the same manner; one minute there, gone the next.

All in all, the F.B.I. had their hands full, trying to find connections between the nine young women and one boy. About two months into the investigation, the boy reappeared with no memory of what'd happened to him and another boy disappeared in his place.

The first connection that was made was that they all had a LOT of word and HTML files. After copying their Internet histories, they discovered two more similarities, they all went to a site called FanFiction.Net and were members of a newsgroup called Potternews. 

There seemed to be a net of them. One, Circe, was a friend of another, Venus, who claimed to be the sister of a person, Queen Tessandrilene Wendracon, whom they couldn't find through any means. Queen Tessandrilene Wendracon was added to list of suspects quickly.  Queen Tessandrilene Wendracon had had a falling out with another, GryffindorArcher, who they also couldn't track down; another suspect. And a boy, Surfer Tsunamiya, seemingly unrelated to any of the others, claimed to be Queen Tessandrilene Wendracon's brother. He was also untraceable and, hence, a suspect.

After taking Xing, the site's owner, in for questioning and downloading the FF.N database, they found that they all posted fanfiction, mainly in, but not limited to, the Harry Potter section.

When the F.B.I. tried to get information from J.K. Rowling in her Edinburgh flat, Scotland Yard and Interpol accosted them, and Interpol tried to get jurisdiction from the F.B.I. 

When last looked in on, the heads of Scotland Yard, F.B.I. and Interpol were in a small meeting with the Head of the C.I.A. and the S.E.T.I. director trying to break down the door.

~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~

December 7th~ The Quidditch pitch

"That was so hilarious. To think, Surfer and Tess, suspects in our kidnappings!" Maia laughs as most of the Authors' team leaves the locker room.

"What about GryffindorArcher? Maybe he's the one doing this?" Tawny suggests, almost fearful.

"It's a distinct possibility, Tawny. Circe would know more though. She's known Tess longer than any of us… Other than Surfer of course." Chloe smiles.

The group shared an indulgent laughing session over the possibility and unlikelihood of a romance between the reproachful Ravenclaw and sardonic Slytherin. Alex quickly recovers and calls attention back to the matter at hand.

"Alright but where _is Tess? Venus? Maia?" Alex asks, looking expectantly at the Seeker and Beater._

"She said she had to see someone." Venus says, thinking that it was a serious downer to be in a different house than her friend.

"I think she wanted to see the Head Boy." Maia adds.

"Doesn't set her sights low, does she?" Ray smirks.

"She did once." Venus corrects. "A merchant. I forget his name. Gary or something similar."

"Tess' social life is none of our concern." Alex says, gaining snickers from the team. "None of our _current concern. We __need to be ready to play Slytherin this Saturday. Venus, can you handle both Bludgers on your own?"_

"Sure. Naprob!" Venus answers glibly, unshouldering her precious _Windrider._

"Alright. Let's go!" Alex says, mounting his own broom and kicking off. The rest quickly follow his example to begin the practice.

Meanwhile…

"Thank you so much for listening, Garret." Tess says, as we walked down a corridor.

"Don't mention it. I let myself in for it, didn't I?" I ask, feigning ruefulness.

She laughs her annoyingly melodic laugh. "Yes, indeed you did."

As we turn the next corner on our little stroll through the school, our conversation petered into an easy silence. I remembered these silences well. It had been the time when she'd take my hand and squeeze it gratefully then rest her head on my shoulder.

Sure as clockwork, she did take my hand in hers and squeeze it but then she quickly let go.

"Still, I haven't been able to talk to anyone like this for a while." She adds with a sigh. 

"You've good friends in Venus and Circe. Don't you talk with them?" I respond with false ignorance of her situation.

"Oh sure, when it's something they understand, like boys or music or writing." She says offhandedly, and I inwardly grin at the thought of Tess talking about me with Circe or Venus. 

"But it's hard to explain the politics, the war, the death and betrayal that makes it near impossible for anyone to get close enough to comfort me yet far enough to spare me from the pain." She sniffles and rubs at her eyes. I'd managed to hit a nerve. Yes! Oh, how I'd make her regret exiling me.

"I don't know of any girls that haven't had a crush or a boyfriend by your age." I shift the topic to make this more painful. I could see her eyes harden and her hands clench, jangling those omnipresent annoyances of accessories.

"Once," her voice broke. She clears her throat and starts again. "Only once, did I put my heart before my job. It wound up a disaster."

She fidgets with her hair, trying to get it away from her face by tucking it under her circlet. She always fidgeted when she wanted to end a topic. I'd had my fun so I let the subject drop. It wouldn't do to wear out all my buttons in once conversation. I'd be out of buttons to push and she might catch on.

"So, did you hear about that dance on the twenty-first?" I ask as we start toward the fifth floor and the entrance to Ravenclaw tower.

"Yes. Professor Jeminye told Ravenclaw last week." She answers, obviously grateful for the change of subject.

"And how many refusals have you handed out to the poor boys?" I ask, shining a false smile at her.

"None actually. I had Maia put out the word that I'm not going."

I blink. That would ruin my plans. She had to be there! Even if I had to be the one to take her! 

"Then I guess it'd be futile to ask you myself." I say, schooling my features into a disappointed mask.

"It might not. Try me." Tess teases, a small smile playing on her mouth. She _wanted me to ask her! Oh the unexpected irony! This could tear her down even more than I'd anticipated being able to!_

"All right then. Tess, will you please come with me to the Christmas Dance?" I ask, making the invitation as polite as possible without seeming smitten. Tess makes an act of thinking about it.

"Alright." She answers with a shrug.

I smile, but not for Tess's made-up reason; my success for getting her as my date. No. I smiled because she'd fallen for my newly laid trap. And when the truth was finally out, she'd hurt all the more.

"I'll see you around, then." She says, snapping me from my grand thoughts of revenge with an unpleasant bump. We'd reached the bookcase that marked the Ravenclaw Tower entrance. She'd turned her back to me, patiently waiting for me to leave so she could give the password.

"See you, Lena."

Almost unable to keep my features neutral, I start to panic in my head. I don't believe that name slipped! If she heard it right, I'm dead in the water.

"Excuse me?" Tess asks, whirling around. I'd almost forgotten how quickly she could do that.

"What?" I ask, feigning ignorant innocence. If she was the least bit empathic, which I doubted, she'd catch me right there.

"What did you call me?" She snaps, advancing and seeming to tower over me for all I was almost half a foot taller.

"I didn't call you anything." I lie. "I said 'See you later'."

She somehow manages to look down her nose at me, sizing me up yet again.

"Good day, Garret." Tess says coolly, turning on her heel and whispering the password to the bookcase.

Only when the bookcase had swung silently closed did I breathe again. She could have caught me, just for that stupid pet name. I'd better cancel that meeting at the Slytherin match. She'd catch on too quickly. Two weeks should be a safe time to wait, long enough for her suspicion to die down to a safe level.

I walk briskly away, heading for the Seventh floor. That was too close. I could only thank my lucky stars that the other Authors hadn't thought to show her my last clue, for all they'd agreed that she would know more about it than the Dimensional Janitor. What idiots… At least it'll give me more time to draw out Tess's suffering.

_Authoress's Note and Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all original characters belong to J.K. Rowling. All others, save those listed hence, are mine! Ray Fira is property of Marie (rieb7@hotmail.com), Ariety Blythe and Chloe Frazier belong to Kel (Valentine715@aol.com), Venus McGonagall stars as herself (crystalvenusmcgonagall@yahoo.com), Tawny Miryton belongs to Meg (FunnyGurl895@aol.com), Liz Electra belongs to Liz (Lizard3100@aol.com), Circe Moss belongs to Circe (WatermelonSugar7@aol.com), Delia Phinium belongs to Pat (Trishd29@aol.com), Alex Bakare belongs to Lazymeoo7 (lazymeoo7@msn.com), Maia Rahmlal belongs to Natalia (TOONatalia@aol.com), Surfer Tsunamiya belongs to my brother, Pory (Porygon11@aol.com), Garret Avis belongs to GryffindorArcher (stararcher@yahoo.com), and Tess Wendracon belongs to me! _

_A note pertaining to Garret Avis: There has been a parting of the ways between GryffindorArcher and myself. However, at the time I posted this chapter, my rights to Garret Avis had not been rescinded. Also, should GryffindorArcher have any qualms about me writing with Garret Avis in this story, he can take it up with me, personally (if he thinks it's worth it), and not do the kid-throwing-a-tantrum-thing by reporting this to the FF.N Admin._

_The Slytherin Match in Chapter Six. Tah-tah! _

~Queen Tessandry de Sanyochisei~


	6. The Terra Journal of Surfer Tsunamiya By...

Author's Foreword: Hiyas! I'm Surfer Tsunamiya! G…I mean Tess won't be writing this chapter…. HAHAHAHA!!! Your fates lie in my hands!!! Well…at least my typing fingers… anyways… on with the story!

**Chapter Six**

The Terra Journal of Surfer Tsunamiya

Friday, September 13th, 5:00 PM ~ 

Darn you fellow authors…. You say I can't play Quidditch, then perfect Maia Rahmlal gets hurt and all of a sudden you NEED the "skinny gangly purple-haired-freak" to play Seeker.

Oh! And to top it all, when I got onto the field that old flying BAT, Hooch (though she reminds me of Mel Gibson in robes with white hair!) said I couldn't use my board to fly

"It has to be a regulation broom!" she says. HAH! Me? Use a dust mop to FLY? Again I say, HAH! Oh well… she let me use it in the end…. 

Saturday, September 14th, 3:00 PM ~ 

Two minutes into the game I caught the snitch and made it look like a feint thingy… that stupid thing that sounds like 'wonky'. 

Don't care much. Just when you think it can't get any funnier…I'm lying up here on my board and NOBODY KNOWS WHY!!! Tess came up earlier and told me off but I told her of my plot and she actually AGREED…I think Venus knows by now and maybe a few others but not sure…. I will write more later.

Sunday, September 15th, 5:00 PM ~ 

Oh this couldn't be more fun. I love leading Malfoy (Draco you dolt!) on like this!!! He's following me like a hound on the scent of a fox. Too bad this fox is a tricky one…

I think the whole team knows by now. They're all laughing whenever I come by and winking at me… I never thought TESS would wink at me! Call Madam Pomfrey… I'm having a heart attack… 

Monday, September 16th, 5:00 PM 

The hunger has gone to my legs… oh well…if I tell Madame Hooch it'll be over in a few minutes and I'll be able to eat my first legitimate meal in 4 days…

I guess this is the price I pay for wanting either world domination or to have a really good and BIG prank go off the way I want it to. She's calling us down saying it's been too long and the match is won by the team with the most points so far…Cya in a bit!

Madame Hooch had a fit. She went on and on about how Quidditch was a good sport not to be defiled by such rude pranks, or something to that effect. 

None of the authors were listening. They were too busy congratulating each other on a prank well played.

When she finished ranting and raving, she noticed the cheering going on with the Authors. She turned brilliant apple red and said that they could no longer participate in Quidditch…or something to that effect. I think her version had a whole lot more words in it.

(Author's Random Note: _It's 12:55 at night! SHUT UP AND LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!! She told me she was 18…_)

The party afterward was held in the top room of the West Tower. There was enough butterbeer there to make an elf drunk…. (In case you don't know that's A LOT.)

A large number of the other house members (Slytherin being notably absent) had found out where the Authors held their victory parties, if only by virtue of following their ears.

Oh my… I'm either very drunk or very scared! The Great Uptight Queen of Pole-Up-My-Butt was just carried out by Cho Chang, rip roaring drunk… I want to know how the hell she got drunk on BUTTERBEER!

Oh! Wait... That's right. They all THINK this is butterbeer but I wrote in butterbeer-TASTING ale. 

I don't know where Venus went but I heard her saying something about underwear and socks.

~*~^~*~^~*~ Switch to Venus PoV (Tuesday Morning)~*~^~*~^~*~

I woke up the morning after the party with a hangover. It hurt… Oh it hurt. Moving without bodily revolt wasn't much of an option until I managed to reach the quill and parchment I keep on my bedside cabinet. I couldn't get rid of all the effects, like the loss of how I'd gotten from the party to my bed and anything in between.

I roll out of bed to find a very LARGE pile of varying undergarments and socks in the middle of the room. My dorm mates were digging through the pile, calling to each other what they'd found thus far.

Suddenly, a blur of cloth came flying at my face. I catch it on reflex. I unbunch the piece of apparel and was revolted to find green and silver boxer shorts with dark green snakes patterned all over and the initials "D. M." embroidered on the waistband.

"EW!!!" I exclaim and hurl the boxers away, disgusted to think of the owner (the only person I could think of with those initials), only for them to collide forcefully with Serenity's half buried head.

Serenity halts her search through the pile to fling a pair of particularly vile socks back at me. Within a few moments, the air was thick with the ammunition of the underwear and sock fight of the century.

The flinging was only brought to a halt when Garret Avis stomps into the room. Guinevere was the last one to notice so she'd flung one last piece of apparel, which Garret snatches out of the air, finding it to be one of his own.

"I think I know where all the socks and undergarments went, Professors!" Garret shouts down the stairwell. There was a great stampede of feet and almost all of the professors were gathered around or near the doorway.

"Do any of you know how these got here?" Professor McGonagall asks irately. I abruptly found myself to be the target of my roommates' accusatory fingers.

"I don't know?" I say hopefully, only to be dragged off by the disbelieving professors. Oh this is not going to be a fun day…

Author's Ending Note: Goodnight…(falls over dead)

Queen Tessandrilene's Note: _After kicking Surfer in the butt for months, he's finally finished this chapter. Yes, my dear readers, it was meant to be short, if only to spare my brother from too much torment._

_My usual disclaimer applies. Please don't make me retype it._

_Kudos to: Surfer for finally writing this. He did better than he thought! I only needed to fix a bit of grammar and spelling._

_Tah tah now! I'm back on the case with Chapter Seven: The Christmas Ball!_

~Queen Tessandry de Sanyochisei~

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……………(snoring).


	7. The Christmas Dance

**Chapter Seven**

The Christmas Dance

By Queen Tessandry de Sanyochisei

"Come on, Cho! If I have a date, you HAVE to go!" Tess argues with the reluctant Ravenclaw Seeker.

"For the last time, Tess, no! I'd look pathetic if I showed up stag!" Cho argues back, desperate to get out of going to the dreaded Dance.

"So get a date! Cho, I'm sure there's some boy just dying to take you to the dance! Honestly how could there not be?" Tess retorts. Cho sighs.

"Why are you doing this to me? Am I not allowed to suffer silently?" Cho complains, looking plaintively at the ceiling. "What act of High Treason did I do in which past life to deserve this?"

"Look at it this way, Cho-darling." Tess says with an insinuating smile. "It'll help the recovery process. That… And I point blank refuse to go to a dance without someone to talk to should my partner turn out to be the worst dancer in this side of the Dimensional Sea."

"But Tess…" Cho whines, resorting to the last tactic in the 'I Wanna Get Out Of This' manual.

"Don't 'but Tess' me, Miss Chang." Tess says sternly. "I dare you to accept the next date to the dance, no matter who it is… Well… It has to be a guy but you know what I mean."

Cho looks at her friend, questioning the status the young woman before her held in her world.

"How do I let you talk me into these things… First it was the House raid on the toilets, now this?" Cho complains. "Fine… I'll do it… But I promise I won't like it. Not one minute of it."

"I never said you had to like it, hun!" Tess replies, grinning now that her friend had caved. "I just said you had to come with."

"Tessandrilene Madia Wendracon, sometimes I wonder why you got put here. You act so like a Slyth." Cho says, standing and brushing imagined dust from her robes.

"Bah! I don't need power! I have enough as it is!" Tess shrugs the accusation off with a grin.

"You know, for being an empress, you sure are manipulative." Cho says in wonder of the sixteen-year-old empress.

"Aw… Shucks… It comes with the territory. Need to keep people happy and in line… And since the two don't usually coincide…" Tess trails off, still grinning like an idiot.

"Fine. I'm going… Might as well get this over with." Cho says and walks towards the Tower door.

"That's the spirit, girl!" Tess calls back.

"You so owe me, Wendracon." Cho retorts and leaves.

"I'll make it up with my presence gracing your company." Tess calls as the door closes, settling back into her chair and curling up with her book.

Maia quietly steps towards the occupied empress.

"Yes, Maia?" Tess asks, not looking up from her book.

"Um… The rest of us, the authors I mean, were wondering if…" Maia trails off. Tess looks up, only mildly perturbed.

"Wondering what?" Tess asks, her eyes belying the genuine interest in her voice.

"If you knew anything about someone named GryffindorArcher." Maia says in a rush. She sighs, relieved to have gotten it out without having her head bitten off. However, the hopes of it staying that way were slim, as Tess's eyes flash with opalescent fire.

"Where did you hear that name?" Tess asks, deadly quiet.

"I didn't! When Venus did the scrying for us, he was one of the suspects in our disappearance from the real world." Maia babbles nervously, quickly switching to defense.

"Wouldn't that just fit." Tess snaps, standing and setting her now closed book forcefully on a nearby table. After that, Tess stalks out of the Common Room, leaving a very confused Maia behind.

_Breathe, Tessa._ Tess silently coaches as she walks around the school. _The only way _he_ could get here would be if Surfer took him. While I very much doubt that… It's better to be safe than sorry._ Tess thinks, and heads towards the dungeons. 

However, she needn't go all the way to the Common Room door, as she found Surfer in the Entrance Hall, pleading with an ethereal-looking Slytherin Third Year. By the end of the discussion, Surfer was cheering himself on behind the girl's back. The girl leaves for the Great Hall, abandoning Surfer to the Entrance Hall.

"Yo, Suffer!" Tess calls from her unobtrusive observation point. Surfer whirls around, startled.

"Not you… Just when something good happens to me, you show up. Do you have surveillance on me or something?" Surfer complains as Tess approaches.

"Naw… not worth the time and money. My timing's just perfect that way." Tess responds grinning.

"Well… What do you want?" Surfer asks shortly.

"I know how you hate to remember this experience, quite frankly, so do I, but you remember when you were in Sarcastia, on Parth?" Tess asks at length.

"That's kind of a hard time to forget, Wendracon." Surfer says, leery of the strangely polite empress.

"Well, I was just curious, and this could help us get out of here faster so please try to answer, did you take anyone here after you left?" Tess asks, her winning smile in place for all it was Surfer she was trying to manipulate.

"Nope… Well yeah… But he promised he'd leave me be if I did." Surfer responds with a shrug. "And if you so much as think that it's him anyways, I'm going to have to kill someone… And I can't promise that it'll be him." Surfer adds with a meaningful glare at Tess.

Tess shrugs. "If the person you took here is who I think he is, then I wouldn't believe anything he 'promised'. I speak from experience."

Tess turns to walk away only to crash into someone else, namely Garret Avis.

"Hello Tess." Garret greets with a smile, just the barest hint of restraint flashing in his eyes.

"Hello Gary." Tess replies, returning his smile. "Tsunamiya, I'll be talking to you later." 

"Can't you just leave me alone?" Surfer groans.

"No." Tess answers and pulls Garret away.

"Author business again?" Garret asks with a lopsided grin.

"Yes. I feel like I'm missing out on something the rest of them know." Tess sighs. "I must be the only one actively trying to put the clues together."

"Give them a break, Tess. After all, considering that all of you aren't from this world, to be dropped here must be something like a dream come true. However, you have an obligation to get back to your world. Also take into consideration that the only way you've known about this world is through writing and books…" Garret explains rationally, earning him an unblinking stare from Tess.

"You speak as though you too are an author." Tess says, suspicion clear in her gaze.

"I'm merely speaking from your point of view, Tess." Garret demurs.

"You spoke to easily of this world being a book…" Tess continues.

"My dear Tess, I've long been known for my ability to see other's viewpoints and speak of them with the ease I would my own." Garret replies, calm despite the suspicious stare from the smaller girl.

"I must be talking to you too much…" Tess says as she shakes her head as though dispelling a thought. "Are you ready for tomorrow?" Tess asks, changing the topic quickly.

"That would be why I came to find you…" Garret answers, smiling to himself.

~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~

_This isn't fair! I have to work Ellektra Amnemanci up for weeks and Alex goes and gets the hottie of the Ravenclaw Team in five seconds! I'm beginning to regret not following Ariety's example and boycotting the stupid dance._

_I mean what does Alex have that I don't? I'm older. Older men have more experience._ Surfer thinks as he smiles._ C'mon! Where does he get off asking Cho Chang out and getting her within five bloody seconds when Ellektra has been available for weeks? I've been trying for weeks too!_

Surfer continues on this train of thought until he reaches the Slytherin Common Room. Then he just thinks, _Eh… Ellektra is hot enough for two women._

Idly, he runs through the Author couplings. _Lessee… Tess is going with the 'perfect Gryffindor blowhard Head Boy' Avis. I'm going with Ellektra. Maia is going with Corwin Boot. Tawny, shockingly enough, is going with Draco… I wonder if he got hit with a Bludger one too many times last week... _

_Venus has, not surprisingly, nailed George Weasley. Chloe is going with Lee Jordan. Ray has sunk so low as to bully Dennis Creevey into going with her. She _says_ she's planning on ditching him after two minutes but I don't believe her._

Liz, Circe, and Delia managed to get themselves dates within the Hogwarts staff. Liz got the CoMC backup, Corvus Raven. Circe is going with the Herbology assistant, Jin Sahng. Delia says she's going with her 'friend', Gin Koorino, but the rest of us say she's positively smitten.

Surfer's thoughts were derailed as Ellektra enters the Common Room. 

"Ah, Ellektra, my dear, what color will you be wearing tomorrow's eve?"

~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~

True enough to her word; Ray did ditch Dennis within a few minutes. Ariety made a cameo appearance at the beginning of the festivities, leaving immediately after a quick chat with Dumbledore.

Tess was becoming almost unbearably smug, as Cho seemed to have lied about having fun, but her smug attitude was tempered by her actually relaxing about finding out how to get back.

Tess was taking a break, getting drinks for Cho, Garret, Alex and herself. As she reaches for the punch ladle, a silken voice makes her freeze, mid-motion.

"Enjoying yourself, are you?" Tess whirls around, backing against the table, to face the Dark Archer. Tess's first impulse acted upon had her grabbing the nearest glass and tossing the contents at her current bain. However, with a show of power, he returns the liquid to the glass.

"I'll take that as a no then, shall I?" Dark Archer (_Let's go with D.A. for short, shall we?_) says, taking the class from Tess and placing it back on the table.

"Get away from me." Tess says scathingly and tries to turn only to find she couldn't as he steps closer.

"Tess, what's –" Cho trails off, standing to one side of Tess, as she sees who else was by the punch bowl.

"Oh ye gods…" Garret mutters, closing in on Tess's other side.

"Ah, you've found a new confidante and champion… You've split the job too I see." D.A. says seeming to smile through his dark shroud. 

"Get out of here, Gary, Cho. This isn't your fight." Tess says, not taking her eyes off of D.A., ice floating beneath every word and action.

"Oh, sticking up for yourself now? That _is_ an improvement." D.A. sneers. Tess's expression remained as ice; her eyes flashing like the sun off of a frozen lake.

"I never needed anyone to fight petty squabbles for me." Tess responds, cold austere encasing every syllable. "Nor did I ever need a mask to hide behind."

Tess finally manages to turn on her heel and make her way out of the hall. Outside and away from the noise of the ball, Tess just manages to breathe before being cornered by four Third Years; a Ravenclaw, a Gryffindor and two Hufflepuff.

"We'd heard from Cecilie that you weren't one to tangle with…" One of the Hufflepuffs says.

"Now we know why!" The other Hufflepuff adds, grinning.

"If you ever start up lessons on how to do that ice stare and put down, be sure to sign us up." The Gryffindor says with a sly glint in her eyes.

"Boy, Tess! When you were cutting him down to size, I thought the Ice Age had returned!" Cecilie, the Ravenclaw, states, in considerable awe of the Sarcastian Empress. "When I told Mariel, Maggie and Jeni that I knew you, they went nutters and wanted to meet you."

"Ye gods! I would've been yelling that sleaze out!" Jeni (the Gryffindor) says, punching her left palm with her fist.

"You _wanted_ to do that right?" Mariel (the first Hufflepuff) asks expectantly. Tess smiles distantly.

"An empress can't afford to indulge in fits of emotion. Could cause a political uproar." Tess states simply, the smile vanishing beyond a horizon of ice.

"Oh but you wanted to!" Maggie counters. "Just try to tell me truthfully that you didn't want to throw a mirror."

"A lady doesn't throw a mirror." Tess says. "A mirror is seven years bad luck. She throws a vase or a chair, preferably out a window."

The Third Years laugh and head back into the hot and crowded hall. Tess, sighing, goes outside to clear her head with fresh air.

Ariety greets Tess as she steps out the doors. Tess nods a mute response and walks down to the lake.

She sits on a fairly flat rock and stares at the only too familiar stars. She spent her time quietly finding all the commonly taught constellations, even making up a few of her own.

Her private game is brought to an abrupt halt after she had connected Rigel, Betelgeuse and Sirius and naming it the Archer's Bow.

"Oh what a bittersweet revenge you have chosen for me, Archiah." Tess says with a sigh, her native language flowing clearly on the night air for she had no fear of eavesdroppers. Garret freezes in his tracks a few meters away, hearing and comprehending the empress's words.

"No matter what I do, I can't get away from your memory, can I, Viemouraux?" Tess continues in Sarcastian while gazing at the constellation Orion. She was completely oblivious of Garret's proximity.

Garret quickly and quietly walks back to the school, grinning maliciously, leaving Tess to her Astronomy. He was pleased no end by this partial success.

_Authoress's Note and Disclaimer: My standard disclaimer for this story is still applied. Don't make me retype all that crap… All it does is boast up the file size. ___

Notes about this chapter specifically: My cast didn't object to the cliffy… None of them (save Archer [Thank you GryffindorArcher!!!]) responded to my post on our private group so it's their tough cookies. I'm not going to tell what 'viemouraux' means because I'll be telling you later. I translated the Sarcastian so I didn't have to create the language… HEY! I'm NOT J.R.R. Tolkien! (For those of you who don't know who Tolkien is… READ A BOOK!!!)

I'm having a small trouble trying to figure out where to start, I would appreciate ideas from not just my cast. Thank thee!

_Hmm… Maybe once I'm done writing this, I'll open up that group as a discussion list but until then… And until Chapter Eight…_

_Tah-tah! _

~Queen Tessandry de Sanyochisei~


	8. The Archer

**Chapter Eight**

The Archer

By Queen Tessandry de Sanyochisei

"Tess, I'm serious. The only time I can do a scrying in the near future is next Wednesday after Herbology." Venus explains impatiently.

"Venus, I'm serious too. I have an Archery Club meeting that day and Aymery is expecting the Elves' response today!" Tess counters desperately.

"I can't do anything, Tess. I have a Potions paper due Monday that I haven't even started on due to all the Easter Break work that got piled on me." Venus says with a sigh, gesturing to the piles of books on the library table.

"Then can you at least tell me how to do it?" Tess asks, pleading.

Venus sighs in resignation. "Fine… I'll write out the steps for you quick. Then, at least, I'll only have to do the scrying for Earth."

"Thank you, V!" Tess says as Venus writes out the instructions. Venus then hands the paper to Tess, who snatches it with a "Merigati!" and pelts away from Venus's table.

~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~^~*~

"Tess, I still fail to understand why you need to use the _Head Boy's_ bathroom for a scry session." Garret sighs, giving up on studying.

"Gary, please! If I use one of the public toilets, anyone could walk in on me! I've already tried to get Morwen and all but the Slytherin Prefects to let me uses theirs!" Tess pleads desperately.

"Tessandrilene…" Garret groans, "What could be so important that you don't want anyone stumbling across it?"

Tess bites her lip, unable to think of a prudent reason that allowed her to keep Garret in the dark about the unstable politics in use on Parth off the top of her head. However, before she could come up with such a reason, a feeling of stomach-wrenching dread twisting her insides cut her thoughts.

Tess turns slowly and starts walking, unnaturally calm, from the library.

"Tess? Tess, where are you going?" Garret asks, for once genuinely worried about the empress's behavior, getting up and following her.

As Tess exits the library, her pace quickens, forcing the following Head Boy to hasten his pursuit. Soon, Tess reaches full-pelt, making Garret use all the shortcuts he knew of in order to keep up.

Coming out a passage, Garret catches a glimpse of Tess barging into what was commonly referred to as "Moaning Myrtle's Toilets". With a slight amount of hesitations, he follows her into the bathroom. 

He enters the girls' toilets to see Tess casting the last preparatory spell. Within a few seconds the image appeared. A sooty Aymery was helping a girl that looked like a Tess in inverted colors to carry Tess's mother away from a smoking city in the background. Tess stares at the mirror's image before shaking her head.

"Humph… First time mess up. I _did_ cast everything in a minute." Tess shrugs and recasts the spells, focusing this time on the capital, oblivious of Garret's approach and proximity.

The image of Tess's cousin, mother and the strange girl blurs and fades into a picture of a crater-riddled city.

Tess stares at the image for a fallen Parthmet in shock. She grips the edges of the sink, not trusting her legs to keep her upright.

Garret, standing behind the empress, stares in similar, yet well hidden, shock. A cracking sound makes him look down at the sink to find webs of hair fine cracks spreading themselves in the porcelain from Tess's hands.

He pries one of her hands from the breaking porcelain only for the other hand, clenched into a fist, to connect with his gut. Garret doubles over, gasping for breath.

"Oh! I'm sorry Gary! I didn't mean to! You just startled me." Tess, having whirled around, kneels on the floor to see Garret's face, placing her left hand tentatively on his right shoulder. Garret looks up from his examination of the stone floor, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"That's no excuse Tess. I had nothing to do with that." Garret states tersely, jerking his head to indicate the still bewitched mirror. Before he could blink, let alone argue further, he had his arm twisted up behind his back and a fist full of hair grabbed, pulling him upright against an icily glaring Tess.

"Those with nothing to hide would explain why they would grab my hand, _not_ attempt to displace the blame." Tess whispers menacingly. "So what do you have to hide?"

Without any explanation, Tess removes her right hand from Garret's hair and reaches inside his robes to pull out, not a wand but, a dagger that'd been a bulge against Tess's side.

The dagger was fairly simple; the only decorative adornment was a crest, an arrow and sword crossed over a crown. This however, was not alone what made Tess pale. It was the initials, G.A., engraved in the pommel that had her attention.

In her distraction, Garret wrenches his arm away and starts for the door but Tess catches him and presses the dagger against his throat.

"Don't you so much as _twitch_, Gryffin Archiah, or so help me, I'll see you _dead_." Tess snarls in Sarcastian. Surfer chose that moment to poke his head into the room.

"I heard Sarcastian and it's been my experience that it can't be anything good." Surfer explains, ignoring the murderous glares from both enemy and ally. "Is everything kosher here?"

"Yes. I'm having a bloody _picnic_ with Archer-boy here." Tess snaps, sneering.

"So you want me to call an E.A.M.?" Surfer asks, his attitude brightening considerably. [_Authoress's Note I: E.A.M. stands for Emergency Authors Meeting. These are held in the same place as the Authors' post-match parties._]

"No, I want you to notify Draco and the rest of Slytherin House. What d'you think?" Tess responds, each scathing syllable drowning in sarcasm.

"Right-o then! See you in an hour!" Surfer says with a grin and leaves.

"I'll see you at the top of the West Tower in one hour, but other than that, I will see none of you or you're as good as dead on this floor." Tess states venomously, her usual detachment starting to reassert itself. "And if I see you anywhere on Parth but with the Elves, I'll see you hanging by your heel over the Sar Chasm." [_Authoress's Note II: If you don't get that intentional pun… WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING READING THIS STORY?!?!?!_]

Tess spins on the ball of her foot and leaves the toilets, dagger flashing dangerously in her hand.

_Authoress's Note III and Disclaimer: My standard disclaimer for this story is still applied. Don't make me retype all that crap… All it does is boost up the file size.___

Notes about this chapter specifically: So… Tessa figured Archer-boy out… Note for future reference? Don't piss Tess off. 

The next chapter, everyone goes home after getting royally reamed out by a 'goddess'. I translated the Sarcastian so I don't have to create the language… HEY! I'm NOT J.R.R. Tolkien! (For those of you who don't know who Tolkien is… READ A BOOK!!!)

_Once I'm done writing this, I'll think about opening up the group as a discussion list but until then… And until Chapter Nine: The Writing On The Sky Ceiling…_

_Tah-tah! _

~Queen Tessandry de Sanyochisei~


End file.
